I GOT A KITTEN!! (days 1-2)
Date: Sun, 28 May 2000 17:31:34 -0400 (EDT)
I HAVE A KITTEN!!
Yes, I felt a need to let the whole world know.
I dunno how many of you know this, but I've wanted a cat for a very long
time.
Yesterday, (Saturday), mct's SO, Nita, went with somebody to clean out the
house she grew up in or something. They found 3 feral kittens. They
guessed 2 months old.
I mentioned to mct (Mike Toren) that I need a cat. He said I didn't want
one of these, because they weren't very nice. I said okay. He mentioned
this to Nita. She picked up the nicest one, and said that it didn't seem
too bad. I was excited and hesitant.
I've been around cat's a good bit. Mom had one when I was little, named
Gandalf. And Mom-mom & Pop-pop always had cats. They lived way out in
the middle of nowhere where people seemed to like to drop them
off. Blazer was the oldest. Poor thing got to be tormented by all us
grandkids when we were little. And Keri tried to flush her down the
toilet once. There was one named.. Thursday ? Some day of the week. And
Tom. And the big grey.. I remember spending hours one day laying in the
grass, watching him, watching me from just on the other side of the
brush line.
So I love cats. But I've never had my own pet any more complicated than
fish before.
But if I didn't take him, he was going to a shelter. I wanted him. He's
extremely cute. Mostly black (dark brown?) with white on the tips of his
feet, throat/chest, and his nose, up to a point on his forehead.
So I've got a 2 month old feral male kitten who met humans for the 1st
time yesterday.
AND HE USED THE LITTER BOX LAST NIGHT!!
Hehe, yes, I'm proud.
When I'm holding him, he seems soo well behaved an happy. When I'm not
holding him.. he seems like he's never met humans before. I mean, he's
not terrified of me, he just.. reflexively runs away.
I've dug him out of...
- underneath the sofa (actually up in the sofa, not on the floor)
- the radiator in the living room
- the.. china cabinet in the dining room (during the process he climbed at least a foot up the wall.. between the wall & the cabinet)
- between the stove and the wall
- behind the stove (don't even know how get got back there)
My kitchen is an absolute disaster from moving things around trying to
find/get him. That's where I left him last night, with the doors closed.
He flipped over & climbed in a number of things.
I woke up at 10:30. I spent till 12:20 finding/retrieving him. He's
good. And my search was isolated to the kitchen.
Whenever I'm trying to find him, he mews at me once in a while. I don't
know if he's taunting me or what :)
Oh geez, I missed a spot I dug him out of. mct/Nita & I made the exchange
at the Netaxs NOC. After they left, he seemed to want to climb out of his
box & look around my car. I figured that'd be harmless, and I let him.
He climbed down between the passenger seat & the door, and then onto the
floor in front of the seat, and then vanished up into the dashboard.
That's right. Up on top of part of the ventilation system or something.
I could see right where he was, and could touch both ends of him.
Several people...
Heh, he just now climbed up onto my shoulder to look around.
Anyway, several people...
See, this is why I haven't written any email or code since I got him.. he
was just so comfortable on my left arm, staring at my fish. And typing 1
handed is so.. unacceptable.
Yeah, so people asked me why I didn't just pull him out. My hands didn't
fit. I ended up getting a good hold of both of his back feet, and
basically just holding on till he slid all the way out. So I'm still
holding him by his back feet, inverted -- my head under my dash, and my
feet up over the back of the seat, and he looks at me like "hi, how ya
doin' ?", and lunges for the hole he was just in (unsuccessfully). I went
next door to tell the neighbors who I'd briefly discussed my problems with
that I finally got my kitten out of my dash.
I got home at 5pm, after getting food, litter, box, & bowls. I got him
out of my dash at 6pm, a full hour later.
I held him for a couple hours. Then let him roam around while I set up
his stuff. Then I spent a while trying to find and retrieve him (putting
the sofa down on a power plug shutting off my computer.. ugh).
I just now put him down in his litter box in the kitchen, with the doors
closed. It's about 5pm.
The 1st time I put him down was on the sofa, yesterday, so he could sit
there & watch the fish. He always disappears pretty quickly. When I
cleared the sofa off, and lifted it up. I didn't see him. Then I looked
up *in* the sofa and saw him. Then he blurred and was gone. Before I
could snap my head in the direction of his movement, he vanished. Ended
up digging him out of the radiator. That was right after I set his stuff
up. I put him down in his litter box, to show him where it was, then I
picked him up & put him down in front of his food. He ate it all quite
happily (half a can of wet stuff).
At some point yesterday we took a nap together. That seemed to go very
well, with us just cuddled up together. So when I decided to go to bed,
at around 10:30, I took him with me. It seemed to go real well for a long
time, then he got up & started walking. I figured he had to go to the
bathroom. So I took him downstairs & put him in his litter box. And he
wedged himself between the stove & the wall. I really didn't want to
leave him there all cold & alone (I had clothes on the floor in there, but
figured he'd be more likely to just spend the night wedged in that
corner). So I took him back upstairs. He started walking a few more
times, but I'd just pick him up & put him back & he'd go back to
sleep. Then one time he didn't just go back to sleep. I took him back
down, put him in his litter box, and he disappeared up into the washer
machine. Ugh. He had food, water, a litter box, and soft clothes to
sleep in if he wanted. And it was 2:30am. I was tired. I went to sleep.
I woke up at 10:30. It took me to 12:20 to find and retrieve him. In the
process I partially took apart, and tilted back the washer machine to get
my head up under it. He wasn't there. He was behind the stove. I don't
know how he fit back there. Pulled the stove out as far as I could, swung
my leg up on the sink, and reached back and pulled him out.
I was extremely happy that he used the litter box though.
Even though he runs away from me, he always seems pretty happy to be
picked up. He was shaking though. He didn't seem to want to be held. I
put him in a box, and put new food & water in his dish, and put that in
his box. He ate most of it. I picked him up. He was still shaking. I
took him upstairs to lay down with him, since that's when he seemed to be
most happy w/ me yesterday. I laid down w/ him on my chest, and he
started purring quite audibly for the 1st time. He didn't seem to want to
cuddle though. I had the door shut. I let him wander off. He only
wandered about a foot, and curled up in the blankets. We spent a lot of
time like this today.
When I was laying in bed with him yesterday, at one point he swung his
left front & back paws up for me to pet his belly, and propped his paws up
on my had. It was so cute. And not something I expected from an animal
that was introduced to humans that day. He's done this a few times
since. He likes to have his belly rubbed.
So... I'm extremely happy to have a kitten.
While I'm on the subject of feral cats, I feel like I should mention a url
I came across yesterday. But first I will warn you -- I slept with the
lights on because of this. It's... rough. If you're not up for having
your heart pretty wrenched, and some unpleasant lingering imagery, don't
read it right now.
It's called "A Little Tabby speaks for the feral cats of the world", and
it's at
http://www.svn.net/elle/tabby.htm.
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