Rugrat's not stir-crazy anymore, but there were finally lots of kittens over at the humane society and I went and checked them out this weekend. I had grand plans of getting one that would be most likely to be a good fit with my cats, e.g. a young, relatively mellow, male kitten. But I must confess that I have a huge weakness for teenager cats, especially female ones and they like me too. There's something about them - they're bundles of feline intensity but their personalities have sort of set by that point.
Anyway, there were a lot of little kids playing with the kittens. I poked my fingers in the cages and looked at the kittens for a while and then decided to go look at the adult cats until things cleared out. You know where this story is heading. I checked them out. As usual, the young female cats were all over me. The more a cat was described as shy, the greater the likelihood it would be super friendly to me. (Ever wonder how I got Luna? Same deal.) I met "Flower", who is a dainty little tortoiseshell. She's about 11 months old. She was so sweet to me, playful, and cute, that I couldn't resist. I had been chosen. I went back out to the area with the kittens, and played with them for a while. One little male kitten was super sweet, but it was really too late, especially after I told the workers that I was interested in Flower. They all said good things about Flower, which is sort of their job, of course, but they seemed to genuinely like her and really wanted her to find a good home. Knowing that she'd been there a while made me feel like I really should get her rather than the cute kitten who'd probably get adopted by someone else in a day or two.
Flower had been at the shelter for about a month and a half. I'd seen her picture on the website, but didn't pay much attention since, as a mottled tortoiseshell, she doesn't photograph well and probably won't have much of a career as a LOLcat. She was brought in with her two brothers, who are big mellow orange tiger cats. All three had spent all their life with their mother and owners and were indoor cats. At the time she was brought in, she was pregnant by one of her brothers. Apparently this was a household with too many cats and not enough responsible pet owners. Anyway, she had a little operation and is fortunately not an incestuous teenage mom anymore. Not that I would love her any less if she was.
While I was waiting for a few of the papers, one of the grad students and her boyfriend came in to look at pets. I won't be able to keep my crazy cat lady a secret from them. Of course, they all know that already, including the fact that I was thinking about getting another cat.
I brought her home and set her up in my computer room. She hid in the corner at first but soon got over that. Now she wants to go explore the house, but I'm supposed to keep her separate for a few days. She's still crazy about me. That wouldn't sucked if she'd lost interest once I brought her home. I let Luna and Rugrat in (not at the same time). Flower was eager to meet them but not too aggressive. She would crouch down or expose her belly. Luna came over and sniffed her for a while and started growling and fluffed up. Rugrat was a little shyer but also growled. I didn't push it and removed my older cats after a few minutes.
Flower is playful but extremely gentle to me. She rolled on her back and grabbed my hand when I teased her, but she didn't extend her claws and she licked my hand rather than biting.
Flower gets a little bit lonely here in the computer room. I could hear her meowing when I was downstairs making dinner. It is her first time away from her brothers/lovers. I've sat with her blogging and talking on the phone for a few hours now, so now she is happily conked out on the floor.
I don't think I'm going to continue to call her Flower. I'm not sure what to call her, so at the moment I am calling her "Bitty Kitty" Feel free to email me with names, either serious ones or not.
You did a good thing getting an older cat. They don't get adopted as easily as the little ones.
ReplyDelete