You do drugs, you pay the consequences.
Yesterday afternoon, I found Milo practically unconscious on the porch, catnip and packaging torn asunder and a key bit of evidence tucked under his head. The kids left the goods out accidentally, and this kitty had a hey-day. He didn't budge or crack an eye while I walked around taking photos of him.
As I think I've mentioned here before, I apparently wear some sort of sign or omit some sort of odor or otherwise provide some sort of signal - undectable to humans, readily obvious to felines - that our house is wide open to any stray cat.
Our newest visitor-turn-adoptee is Milo, a sweetheart all-black male kitty that showed up in February in pretty good shape, and then started to act more and more hungry. We think someone moved away and abandoned him. We finally scooped him up, took him to the vets for flea meds and shots, and stuck a collar on him.
He is buddies with Sparkle now, is quite nice to our indoor kitties Azul and Juniper (although Junie B. is outraged by his presence), and doesn't seem to stray too far from our property. B. is exasperated by my cat obsession and now realizes he married a crazy cat lady, who has a dangerous future liklihood of hoarding cats in a run-down house and shuffling to the corner store to buy stacks of canned food with her meager pennies. He's going to have to keep a close eye on me.
Anyhow, this is Milo, who was orginially dubbed "Midnight" by the kids, but I put an end to that nonsense and gave him a proper name. I can't have another cat running around with a cutesy name akin to "Sparkle" now, can I?
This is my little furry friend who is everywhere that I am. And into everything I am. And is tormenting my every waking moment.
I already have two children to clean up after; I now have Miss Junie B. -- a cat that spills any glass with liquids left out (especially if it has ice that clinks); flings freshly poured cat litter back out with glee; falls into the bathtub when it is full of water and two kids and then skitters into other rooms, bringing half the bath water with her; pushes the new hamsters' cage onto the floor (they survived); clings to the screen door at eye level or above and howls while we are outside; catapults the sugar spoon out of the bowl in the middle of the night so that I wake up to find sugar-encrusted kitchen counters and floors; drags bags of bread around the house when we are all asleep; and schemes at every door and window on sneaky ways to bust outside and take her one-act freak show on the road.
Everyone says, "Well, that's what you get with a kitten." No, that's what you get when you adopt a Wild Thing. Azul was the perfect model of decorum and sweetness when she was this age. Luna would rather have plucked out her fur than to have gotten in trouble. Only Moss - infamous Moss the cat, as our friends and families well know - would have dared to be this much of a bad ass. Will Juniper grow out of this? Or will she be a perpetual troublemaker with a bit of wanderlust and a chip on her shoulder to boot, a bit like her Denver cousin Boogie? Time will tell.
So, chalk up my irregular blog attention at least partially to Juniper, two hamsters, and a new Venus Flytrap (for which we have to go outside and catch flies with a net and feed with tweezers - oh joy), and to back-to-school, back-to-soccer, and a whole lotta writing/editing work goin' on.
Azul and Juniper have found love. Zuly acts as a mother figure, bathing the kitten and trying to settle her down when she's too crazy (usually by smack-down, rough-bath method, which eventually knocks Junie out). They play in and out of their favorite Dell computer box, and engage in fast and furious gallops through the house. It's really too cute for words when they cuddle and sleep together. We're so glad Junie has a surrogate mom, and Azul has a good little buddy.
Does it get any cuter than this?
Juniper is a fine little kitten, well-behaved, adorably cute on command, sleeps lots. She and Azul have formed a tenuous friendship - Zuly enjoys stalking her and playfully batting at Junie from under the couch. She also likes to knock the kitten off the couch when Junie gets too close to her tail while she's trying to nap. Azul has been super good with Junie all in all, however, and we're very proud of how mature she's being.
Sparkle, on the other hand, walks around growling at all times when he's indoors, even when there is no kitty in sight. Then, the growling gets to be too much for him, and he descends into a fit of coughing and sputtering and has to excuse himself to the back room, where he sulks. Sparkle is a tad lacking in social skills.
Juniper Bitsy Spider Mead. But you can call me Junie. Or Junie B. Or June Bug.
I am Azul and Sparkle's new baby sister! I came home yesterday. I love it here. I have two kids that play with me all the time and a big grown-up lady that lets me snuggle under the covers with her at 4:30am. The big guy seems to like me too. The two big cool cats hate my guts.
I was found in the middle of a street with my brother in Los Feliz when I was two weeks old. A lady almost hit us and then realized what we were. She stopped the car and rescued us. Another nice lady bottle-fed us, so we really like people. My name was Bitsy until yesterday, when the nice family renamed me with lots of names. They said that's because T. S. Eliot says:
The naming of cats is a difficult matter,
It isn't just one of your holiday games;
You may think at first I'm mad as a hatter
When I tell you a cat must have three
different names.
I think I'm gonna like it here.
Our grand dame kitty, Luna, is winding down. She's been diagnosed this week with both renal failure and hyperthyroidism. She sleeps lots, can't keep food down, doesn't want to drink. It's hard to have a little patient in the house who looks so frail and who seems one step out of this life. Our "mobile vet" who makes house calls has her on an array of medication, but she can't keep the pills down, and I am worried.
We have prepared L. the best we can -- she and Luna are the best of friends. I have the book The Tenth Good Thing About Barney waiting in the wings, and we've talked lots about the Rainbow Bridge, where Luna will get to go see Moss, her troublesome older brother who we all adored nonethelss and who died two years ago.
Luna has surprised us before, however, and may still be here months down the road. I am not sure what to hope for. In the meantime, we watch over her carefully and talk to her gently and wish her no pain in the path that she chooses.
Sparkle the cat mysteriously arrived in our backyard, thin and scared, two summers ago. Was he dumped, lost, abandoned? We'll never know. We were already feeding a feral cat we'd dubbed Jo-Jo, so we figured Jo had spread the word to his street pals that suckers lived at the corner green house and to head on over for free food, no questions asked.
L. decided on the decidedly unmasculine name of "Sparkle," and we took him to the vet for a checkup, where we learned that he was already neutered. He also had impeccable household and litterbox habits, so we know he once lived indoors. He is the only one of our three cats that gets to go outside. He never, ever strays from our yard (really, not once), and we feel pretty safe letting him go out. He has, however, gained about 10 pounds with us, despite us not feeding him any more than we feed the other cats. He is lazy and maybe not so entirely smart, but we keep him around anyhow.
Kitty Profile:
Name: Sparkle
Name origin: "He's so sparkly and white, mommy!"
Nicknames: Sparky, Fatty, Whitey, Honkey Cat
Age: Approximately six
Coloring: All white, gold eyes, very pink nose and ears
Favorite activities: Eating, laying around like a beached whale, stalking possums, hanging out on the roof
Bad behavior: Breaking through an opening in the wall behind the washing machine and falling into the basement; eating every morsel of food anywhere to be found; poops in the roses.
Sweet behavior: Hangs out with me when I garden; cuddles with Azul, sometimes.
Sleeping spots: Rose garden, lawn chairs, my favorite antique quilt (white hair shed all over it)
Best friend: Azul, sorta
Not best friend: Bully Cat
One year ago today, Azúl joined our family. She is the spoiled baby of the household but keeps her behavior mostly in check and is a wonderful, spirited, loving little kitty. She’s spoiled only because we dote on her so much.
Kitty Profile:
Name: Azúl
Name origin: Azúl is a Russian Blue, and azúl means "blue" in Spanish
Nickname(s): ZuZu, Zuzie, Zuly
Age: Approx. 16 mos.
Favorite activities: Catching crickets by the screen door threshold in the evenings, busting into the shower the second one is finished and trying to catch drops from the faucet in mid-air with her mouth, flying out from under the bed and grabbing your leg as you walk by.
Bad behavior: Chasing flies maniacally through the house, knocking over lamps, curtains, and antiques; meowing to wake us up at 6am; trying to steal Luna’s special diet food.
Sweet behavior: Coming to check on us when we're working on the computer, racing me into our bedroom at bedtime so she can play stick on the bed, meowing out the window to us when we're outside, head-butting our legs and hands for pets.
Favorite sleeping spots: Overstuffed rocking chair in our room
Best friend: Me, and Sparkle on some days
Not best friend: Luna
