I'm sure I'm not the first person to use a literary pun like that as a title but it is a good one. It's a little misleading if consider kitty to be short for kitten but not if if it's short for kitty-cat as one is a young cat and the other is a kitten.
Here's Meg.
Meg was one of two cats I took to the vets on Wednesday for neutering and Carol asked me if I'd keep her in our garage for a few days and give her some 1-1 TLC as Carol herself was finding Meg difficult. Meg had had a rough time of it and Carol thought she might identify her with her previous owner. So I set up the cage in the garage (which had previously been occupied for several months by our niece Sarah who was waiting for parking authorisation in Edinburgh where she'd recently started working) and left her there overnight while she recovered from the shock of her operation. Thursday afternoon I brought Meg into our living room, let her wander around, and then made a fuss of her.
Ar first she responded, purring loudly and snuggling in to me as I stroked her and scratched her ears. Then she growled, hissed and I had blood on my hands. Mine, not hers. She retreated under the couch where I left her for a couple of hours until, after a lot of effort and more blood, I got her out and took her back to the cage in the garage.
The same thing happened on Thursday afternoon. So I took her back to the cage where she sits on the cat litter and pees and craps on the bedding I provided. Since then I visit her three times a day to change anything which needs it, change the water, feed her, and every time I take her out and cuddle her. And every time she responds with loud purrs until she stops and turns on me and there is my blood on my hands. Also my lymph glands under my armpits have swollen up red and sore and one of the causes of that is cat scratch fever.
Now I'm just waiting for Carol to have a spare space to take her back as I can't help her. What she needs is someone experienced, patient with lots of spare time, no children (too dangerous), and preferably no other pets. Meg is salvageable but I was cuddling her just a few minutes ago and even while she purred and rubbed against my face I felt as if I was holding an unexploded bomb.
And here's (the provisionally named) Missy.
Yesterday (and I'll be doing a post about this) I was about to take a lunch break from a large annual community event where we (Animal Krackers) had a table when I bumped into Gordon, one of AK's founder's, who told me a kitten had been handed in to the shop. I shot round there and brought the kitten home. As you can see, she's an absolutely bog-standard black and white moggie about 4/5 months old, distinguished only by a long lean body and long tail.
She's also absolutely everything a kitten that age should be. She's almost a cliche of a kitten. Plays with cotton mousie, batting it in the air, chasing it, chewing it, etc. Investigating everything (in the front room with the door closed) and sniffing everything. Purring when stroked. Uses cat litter appropriately. Jumping around. Jumping on my knee, rubbing against my face, curling up on my knee and going to sleep. Just a nice socialised kitten who also prefers the cheap cat food sachets from Lidl as opposed to the more expensive Felix.
Yesterday, Susan exhausted from the fray, didn't want anything to do with her. This morning she asked to have the kitten brought up to her (she's stayed in bed all day) and since then has rather warmed to the little thing even to the extent of (provisionally) calling her Missy. Missy has also cautiously interacted with some of the other cats -Leo, one of the largest males, fled in terror. There's been some hissing on both parts but no actual violence.
Around lunchtime I'd called at the shop to pick up some catfood when a man came in and said he knew where the cat had come from. I got a long convoluted story which I couldn't really follow but he ending up saying that the original owner (who had the kitten's mother) would take it back if it didn't have a home already. I told him it had. Whether she stays with us or not, I didn't like the sound of where she came from.
I don't want another black and white cat and not a kitten. Besides I've already fallen for Zoe the four month old kitten with runs (see earlier posts). But I've a feeling neither Susan nor I are going to have much choice in the matter.
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