The cats and I have adjusted to Rugrat's absence, but it still seems quiet without her. Now that enough time has passed, I would like to get a kitten or young cat. Ostensibly, this is so Lucy has an energetic buddy to play with, but of course, it's for me too.
There's a part of me that wants one just like Rugrat. She was a Maine Coon mix. I didn't know much about them when I got her. I'd only ever seen pictures of the really big purebred males. Rugrat was small and hated the cold. We called her the California Coon cat. It took her a few years to get to full size, and she seemed like she got shaggier every year. Even so, she never topped 8 lbs. (for comparison, Luna topped out at 12 lbs and Lucy, though petite, is a muscular 9 1/2 lbs) After I had her for a few years, my brother pointed out that she was part Maine Coon and had a lot of the personality traits and habits. I also realized that there a lot of people are crazy about Maine Coons, but as often as not they are talking about the mixes and not just the purebred ones. Like Siamese, it seems like a Maine Coon is a bunch of personality traits wrapped up in a certain package. The personality traits can be very dominant even in the mixes.
I'm kind of tempted to get a purebred one, not because I really care about breeding, but because I want to get one like Rugrat - a lovey lap cat. This urge is at odds with my usual inclination to go for mixed breed cats who need a home. At the moment I've been having trouble finding female kittens at all. I've been obsessively checking the listings at the local humane societies - at the Ithaca one the kittens are adopted almost instantly. It's not much better on Craigslist - I've inquired about a few but they had already found homes. There was a rather chilling post telling people to be careful who they adopt their kittens to (and preferably take them to the SPCA), since some people use them as bait for dog fights. This made me really sad.
There's also a part of me that really wants a kitten, not an adult or adolescent cat. This is at odds with my special fondness for gawky 'teenaged' cats. When I adopted Lucy, I thought a kitten would be best, but Lucy picked me out and that was that. She is a really sweet, funny cat and I couldn't possibly love her more than I do already. This time around I'm still tempted by the young adult cats, and have pangs of guilt for being fixated on a kitten. I am using Luna's old age, Lucy's extremely high energy level, and a desire for a faster adjustment period to justify wanting a kitten.
You and I know that I will end up adopting a mixed breed, possibly a kitten but also possibly a teen or adult, and in all likelihood it will resemble Luna, Max or Lucy physically (torties, tuxedo and black cats are very common here). Anyway, I'll keep on being the internet kitty voyeur since it's a good counterbalance to spending too much time reading about all the myriad ways that women's reproductive rights are being threatened.
For some true kitten voyeurism, see the kitty webcam. For an overdose of Maine Coon kitten cuteness (and a few baby Rugrat clones), the following picture makes me want to shell out the big bucks for a purebred one and ignore all my liberal cat lady inclinations.
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