Andare, Partire, Tornare ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- New four-foots in the house As of Friday evening, Bemo and Gracie and I have two (temporary!) fuzzy houseguests. We had been kicking around the idea of getting a foster cat, just to have another feline around the house but not making it permanent until we were sure we wanted another full-time cat. The cat rescue people, being up to their necks in kitten season, were happy to have another foster home possibility. When Judy the Cat Lady called me, however, she asked me to take not one, but two little boys � a pair of feral brothers, only about nine weeks old or so, who desperately need socialization so they can be adopted. They�re horribly cute, both long-haired, one grey and one peach, with little pointed faces and huge whiskers. But we�re going to have a lot of work breaking them out of their shell of fear � while the grey, tentatively dubbed Miles, is bolder, and is faster to chase the feather or start to explore the house, the peach, tentatively dubbed Dexter, doesn�t want to do much more than huddle in the farthest corner. I�ve gotten him to do a little feather-chasing, but it�ll be a much longer road with him. (Natalie asked why they weren�t Miles and Ivan, and I told her that I had indeed pondered that � as well as Miles and Duv � but I think Dexter is very much a Dexter, so my attempt at linking their names with another established pair just went out the window.) I�ll post a picture of them as soon as I can, because they really are quite perishingly adorable. And my friends so far seem quite willing to come along and handle them, because, hey � kittens! Gracie, however, is Not Happy. She refuses to walk past their crate, which means that I�ve had to sort of forcibly escort her to the kitchen to make sure she�s eating and drinking. She hisses every time she sees or hears one of them, even if she�s in the next room. At one point, she was blissed out on the bed as I was scratching her tummy, but there were two little mews from the next room and she rolled over, spat at me, swatted my hand, and went under the bed to sulk. And, poor thing, at one point she tried to hop up onto my stomach, where she likes to doze, only to find it occupied by two damp kittens � I had just bathed them and was drying them and keeping them warm. It�s only been a couple of days, so I hope she�s going to get over this. I�ve got so many stupid things I need to take care of, and I�m just procrastinating madly. Yarr. Somebody kick me into action. 1:24 p.m. - 2004-05-24 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
||||||