Well, I’ve waited far too long to post this, and let the cat out of the bag so to speak, so here you go.
We got another kitten.
Yup, really.
Just to disway the nay-sayers, no, it wasn’t planned, no we’re not crazy, yes, we did “have” to, yes, that makes four, yes, it‘s starting already, no, there haven’t been problems with the other cats, no, you wouldn’t be able to resist either.
Read on for the full deal and more pictures…
That said, here’s the story. Firefly and FireflyMom were out looking at houses and came across one down the road from another. The people at the latter house had found a stray kitten that, after calling the SPCA to check the tattoo in her ear, turned out to be from the former house where she had been left behind or abandoned. The people had a dog that apparently enjoyed trying to chew on cats, so they were going to take it to the SPCA. As we all know, the SPCA isn’t really a great place for even the nicest cats to go to, and while this one wasn’t really old, she isn’t a baby anymore (no idea what her age is, younger than a year maybe?). So Firefly had no choice but to bring her home.
So my impression of all this was pretty sudden. I came home on Wednesday from work and found FireflyMom playing on the computer, and Firefly in the kitchen. As I passed by the office a cat poked it’s head around from the curtains and wandered out. Because I am a very astute and observant person, wandered past and then took a double take.
“That’s not one of our cats.”
“No.”
“Why is there a new cat here?”
At that point I was told the story I have just related to you, my faithful readers. Firefly was worried that I would be mad, and I wasn’t. I softened really quickly after trying to look mad. Truth is I probably have even less resistance to cute and fluffy things than she does, and I had an idea of what had happened and knew I was going to keep the kitten the second I saw it. Of course, I was surprised, as it was a pretty unexpected thing to come home to. I don’t mind coming home to say, a new shirt, or a new computer, or a new type of shampoo (not that I really need that last one). A new kitten however, is not something I normally expect, especially with three already.
I wasn’t seriously expecting to be a crazy old cat man for a few more years, but I don’t consider it crazy until you need have more cats in the house than arms and legs combined (so when I get 9 cats you can start arranging an intervention.
So some details (technical specs) of the new one. She is a she, and spayed, and has had her shots (though I still want to take her to the vet to get checked out). She seems to be in good health though she has a bit of a runny eye, and sneezes occasionally, so maybe it’s just a cold. Firefly spotted fleas on her, but she’s now bestowed with a flea collar, so those should be dealt with shortly. We’re not sure of her age, but probably under a year but over six months (not sure when they can spay these days).
She’s also a cuddler, oh my. She’ll just sit on you and purr and sleep and it’s the cutest and most wonderful thing. Some of our others do it, but not in such a relaxed way. She also doesn’t insist on licking your nose like Rex does.
She is as soft or almost as soft as Engel and Iambe‘s kitten, Packet. Seriously, you know what I mean if you’ve ever met Packet. She’s really soft.
She is almost a female version of Rex, as mellow as can be. Very content to just sit on a lap or on the couch and hang out, and doesn’t get disturbed by the hissing and growling of the other cats. Some of it is probably anxiety separation of some sort, just esthetically happy to be around people after being abandoned or left behind. If you get up from where you are she’ll jump up and follow you, almost like she’s making sure she knows where you are going. Somtimes she’s sit in the bathroom or hallway out of sight and yowl a bit, and as soon as someone goes and picks her up she turns her purring engine on to full throttle.
There have been minimul problems with the other cats. When she first came in everyone else either hissed or ran away and hid, but the growling and hissing has all but stopped two days later, and I expect things to be normal quite soon. Basically it’s a matter of figuring out who gets to sleep under the kitten heat lamp and who gets to keep the stupid monkeys (that’d be me and Firefly) warm at night.
Yes, four cats are a lot to keep in an apartment, but me and Firefly have been talking with increasing seriousness about looking for a house, and her and her mom have been doing a lot of leg work checking things out and looking at them, and I figure that sometime in the new year after things like taxes and RRSPs have been dealt with, something will happen. When it does it’ll mean that we’ll have a lot more room (and maybe a yard of all things!) for our feline masters to run around.