The NEW New Addition to the Family

Well, we had to put our old kitty down. We knew it had to happen, and we didn't want Ginger to suffer at all. There's been time to grieve, and we're trying to move on.

But because we had this OTHER problem cat, we decided that she needed somebody other than us to beat up on. So please welcome the new new addition to the family:

We went to the county animal shelter on Saturday, and shelters are truly sad places. There is one room with cages on the wall, one adult cat to a cage, and you just get the feeling that they're not leaving this place alive. I'm sure the dog kennels were the same way too, but we were trying to stay on message here, and we didn't even look at the dogs. In the hallway outside of that room were some larger cages on the floor, each holding a few kittens. While we felt sorry for the adults, we needed somebody of a commensurate age as our Jetty, so it was kitten shopping for us. Cindy got to pick, and it didn't take long. There was only one awake, and it wanted something real bad. Cindy pretty much said "That one!" and history was made. We went to the desk and got the attention of somebody that worked there, and they offered some time in a socialization room. We went back to the cage where the guy asked us which one it was. When Cindy pointed her out, he said, and I quote, "Oh, the crazy one!" Cindy and I looked at each other, each of us mentally asking just what we were getting ourselves into! The socialization room had a couple of chairs and some cat furniture, and it didn't take long to decide. This kitty is VERY affectionate. And it was very happy to have some attention. Cindy stayed in the room while I went to work out the details.

$40 seems quite reasonable. We had looked on the internet at other places that had kittens for adoption, and their prices ranged from $100 to $200, all offering the same amount of service. $20 for a license and $20 for a spay operation, and we had to wait until Monday to pick her up. I told Cindy that we should abandon Jetty and then pick her up again just so we could get in on the cheap spay fee. Cindy was not amused.

She's got a little stump of a tail, not quite Manx, but not complete either. There's a little bend in the end that we haven't explored much because she's quite sensitive about it. And her fur is a little coarse, not anything like the soft sensuous cat butt that we recently gave up. She was still recovering from her surgery when the pictures were taken, but she still got a little rambunctious. It turns out that she goes towards the camera whenever there's a picture about to be taken. We've got several photos of a white nose reflecting all of the face in the flash. And she likes to climb on shoulders too.

Naming is something of a problem. As I had named all of our namable cats to date, I told Cindy that she was going to name this one. She had a hard time, and nothing took. I said to call her Stumpy, but again, Cindy was not amused. I thought that Jettys are created with heavy machinery, so I said to call her Backhoe, but again, Cindy was not amused. I suggested Stumpy McBackhoe, and that went over even less well. I accidentally called her Punkin, and that seems to have stuck. Unless / until Cindy decides otherwise, Punkin it is. (We were purposely trying to avoid coloration similar to pets we've had in the past, but apparently a name from my past has crept in. It seems that we had a pet named Pumpkin / Punkin back in the day. As I hardly remember that one, I doubt that I'll be getting it confused with this one.)

So we've just passed the 12 hour at home mark, and most of that time we were all asleep. New kitty and Jetty have met, with NK making a really awful low growl that just backed Jetty (the larger cat!) right down. Jetty retaliated by using the kittens litter box repeatedly. I think that it'll be fine as soon as NK has recovered from her surgery and we can let them play, because boy oh boy does Jetty want to play! It's crowded again, and it's a good thing...

From the information provided to us by the vet, we've decided that her birthday shall be June 10, making her about 6-7 weeks younger than Jetty, hence the size difference at this point. Now we can remember...

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Copyright 2007 by Rich Webb, aka The Outsider.

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