Fur babies

Let me preface this post by explaining that I am not a cat person. Before I try to drown out the litany of, "yeah, rights" coming my way, let me assure you that I'm not - really. For some reason, cats seem to like me. I've grown to tolerate cats more these past few years, but I grew up in a home with birds and a brother who is severely allergic to fur. You can probably imagine how welcome cats were in our household. The phrase, "every home needs a pussy cat" is debatable for me.

Kitten-sized hiding place

Those of you who follow me on Twitter may recall that we had to have Zed, my sweetie's cat of 12 years, euthanised last week. Although I'd only been on the scene for the past few years, it was an incredibly difficult thing to do and he left a big gap in our home. It's just not right coming home to an empty house. While Zed will always be with us (he's buried in the back yard), a week off work seemed the right time, if any, to start again.

Last night, we picked up an 8 week old kitten. She is a grey tabby with white paws, huge eyes and a tiny meow that sounds more like a mouse squeaking. She is as yet unnamed and had a very big first day here with us. After yowling all the way home (about a 20 minute drive), she explored her new home and found a comfy spot underneath our lounge recliners. She has found her way under and in between every piece of furniture we have and many other obstacles we didn't realise were there. She chased a piece of string endlessly before falling asleep on my sweetie. So far so good!

Hours of cheap kitty entertainment

And then it was bedtime. We closed her into the kitchen area but could hear her meowing two rooms away. OK, she wins; we'll have her in our room for her first night after all. We probably should have brought her to our room earlier in the night as she needed to spend a good half hour exploring every possible hole or gap to go under, behind or between. We all eventually drifted off to sleep after midnight, then discovered that 1 am is apparently kitty play time. She helped herself to a tissue and amused herself by chasing it around the bed and tearing it up. *sigh* She decided she was hungry around 5 am but hasn't eaten since. (It's been 17 hours - surely she must be hungry by now!) The rest of the day was spent sleeping ... and nothing else. We don't know if that means 1 am will be playtime again or if she's finally missing her brothers and sisters and the family she came from.

So, here is our new kitty. Hopefully she will have a confirmed name in the next day or so and will have started eating and playing again. She is tiny, unbelievably adorable and quite affectionate. Perhaps she doesn't yet realise what a great home she has come to?