So I now have cats. Last week I had a cat. Last month I had fish. I still have fish, no worries there.
How this transpired:
A few weeks ago I helped run a public education program at one of the local historic sites. There, a volunteer brought a carrier with four kittens, two long haired, two short haired, two gray, two butterscotch (blue and buff, respectively if you want to use proper terminology, but we aren't worried). Not a one the same, a mendel square of distribution. As we had no one at our section, we played with the kittens. One short haired gray one fell asleep on me, and the volunteer said "they need a home." Well, I may be a heartless bitch, but even that was too much for me. So at the end of the day, when we picked everything up, I looked for the cat woman and told her I would love to take one home. I ended up picking the little gray one. All of the remaining kittens, I was told, were male. So we rode home, totally unsafe. I stuck him on the passenger seat, and he (thankfully) meowed the whole five miles home. He made his way to the back seat, to the back shelf (that one against the back window, you know what I mean). We get home, and I bring the little, stinky, flea ridden fuzz ball right to my massive claw foot tub and stick him in it. Then I go to the supermarket and buy food, litter, a plastic shoe box, dawn (safe for kittens, bad for fleas I was told), and a pack of toy mice. Then we go, and he has a bath. He's rather patient with that, i'm surprised. In the next few days I discover he has "butt worms" (I learn that they are specifically tapeworms), I set up an appointment with the vet (reccomended by a friend), and the receptionist at the vet reccomends some OTC worm pills for kittens. I then go out and buy all the pampering supplies: pet bed (fuzzy brown), more toys (squeeky frog), brushes, lead, coller, tag (I decided to name him Orion as he continually pounced; I was thinking Siddartha but he was in no way calm enough), harness (yes, he will walk on a lead), and all that stuff. He sleeps with me, but a full night's sleep is rare as he wakes up constantly and thinks that my lips, ears, and nose are toys. We go to the vet, and I'm informed that Orion is female. Oh well, the name will stay. She gets her shots, more worm medicine (another type was also infesting her), and Advantage. She is 1.9 pounds and 2 months old at this point, and her coat is noticably much better than when she got to my house a week prior.
My professor, after 3 beers, asks me how I'm doing and I tell him that it's uneventful, save for the kitten. He takes that to mean "I am a single bitter female who has given up on human companionship" and proceeds to offer me life encouragement and relationship advice. Yay.
Still, she refuses to let me sleep through the evening. I start to close my bedroom door to keep her out, but she just cries. After some consulting about the nature of kittens, I decide I need another one.
So this past Saturday my neighbor and I went to the mall (we both have a wedding this month) and then to the petstore where the feral cat rescue people set up. I talk with them, and we pick out a quirky 3 month old female calico kitten. Her tail is broken. The tails of all her littermates are broken in the same spot, actually. This just adds to her personality. I pick up some extra supplies: another carrier to take her home with, a cream fuzzy bed, and a pink flamingo squeeky plushy. I take her home and she and Orion really don't hit it off. They tolerate each other, but continue to hiss. One took her post on my knees, and the other on my chest (I was laying down reading) and they hissed at each other, then stared, then they fell asleep. So I think they'll learn each other's roles and deal well.
Saturday night we go out to grab some pizza and listen to a band. I figure it will give the cats some time without my interferance. The band was relatively decent (all cover tunes), the pizza was marvelous (sausage, artichoke, olive, tomato), Florida lost, UT won, and dancing was uneventful (as long as you don't count the dude who kept rubbing his arse against mine and pissed me off enough that I kicked back against the back of his knees, causing him to collapse). We get sorta bored, and in trying to figure out what to do next (it's only midnight, if we go home now, we're pathetic), we decide that since I still have a bottle of Pearl in the freezer that one member of our party brought to the last potluck, I should host people and we'll play with the kittens.
The kittens are overjoyed. They love people. I'm glad about that. Kitten number two, in being a little spitfire when Orion gives her a hard time gets her name Neci (pronounced by me a NEE-see), derived from Latin for Fire.
The two of them are odd. They can both eat from the food dish at the same time and not get mad at each other. But if they get bored, they get all over each other. Orion was rather nippy and sorta agressive before, but she's taken to hissing rather often now. Neci is calm and inquisitive until Orion starts hissing and batting at her. Then she's all sparks. Orion has started giving her a wide berth, but I'll walk into a room and find Orion ready to pounce if Neci walks through the door. So when she sees me, she looks guilty and tries to look like she was going to play with a piece of paper, dust, or invisible string on the other side of the room. Maybe there's some relation to how Neci like red wine and Orion likes hot sauce. I need to remember that the two can now get onto the table themselves.
I need to get a lead, harness, collar, and such for Neci. I wasn't too pleased with the selection at the petstore there.
So now I just need to work on my house, my halloween costume, and the 30 papers due soon. Yay SEAC!
