Titian tried to help. Two months after we lost Denny he found a tortoise shell kitten at the school where he works. He brought the kitten over to give her a flea bath and the cat never left.
Mackie loves Titian. After all, he saved her. Mackie likes me because before I go pick up Pepper in the morning I feed her breakfast — kitty sushi. If you don’t know what kitty sushi is, think fish flavored flakes of air. It’s her favorite food. I also give Mackie her evening snack of tube food. Tube food, you ask? That’s what we call her Nulo fish purée in those little plastic tubes. Hence, “tube food”. Providing her with her main foodstuffs makes me the prime household human in Mackie’s mind, relegating my wife to the status of the spare. Luanne can feed Mackie her Nulo in the evening but that’s only good because I’m right there as well. Breakfast is almost always associated with me.
So what’s a guy to do when his wife wants a cat that will love her and not just when she has tube food in her hand? He acquiesces to the frequent pleas for her own orange kitty. As soon as I stopped fighting the idea of a second cat in the house Luanne started scouring the local cat rescue websites looking for any available orange kittens. After a few weeks of “Honey, come look at this sweet little kitty! Oh crap, he’s been adopted.” she found one at the East Bay SPCA in Dublin that was still available. We drove out there one afternoon with Pepper in tow. I purposefully had Pepper with us. I wanted an excuse to not go in with Luanne. This was going to be her cat, not our cat. If she took it home, it would need to bond with her, not me. Pepper and I walked all around the grounds for over an hour while Luanne spent time inside with the kitten.
Closing time came at the SPCA and Luanne was ready to do a grab-and-go but they needed her to fill out the paperwork and there wasn’t enough time. “Come back tomorrow, after 10am to complete the process,” she was told.
My wife’s in a mild state of furball withdrawal but she’s being an adult about it. Back in the cat carrier goes “Rusty”. This delay gives us time the next day to set up the kitty condo in our bedroom, get a small cat box and toys at Mike’s Feed and Pet’s, and to prep the kitchen for a snooping kitten. So far, so good.
Still wanting the new kitten to bond with Luanne first, I let her go do the pick up. Other than the picture on the website, I have yet to actually see this cat. When I finally meet this thing I’m shocked. It’s not a real orange tabby like Denny. This cat is a dusty hue half way between tan and orange. And the only stripes on him are his belly and his tail. He’s also skinny. I mean Auschwitz survivor type skinny. Long ass boney legs and a tail that looks like it belongs on a ring-tail monkey. Given how high he stands and this foot-long tail sticking up whenever he’s walking his head looks substandard. It’s not, he’s not in the least microcephalic. It’s an optical illusion caused by the size of his lanky frame.
Once home, “Rusty” quickly acclimated to life in our bedroom. He soon discovered that he could claw his way onto the bed and race around attacking all the folds in the comforter. Great fun for a kitten who has been in a cage for several weeks without any prospective adopters. He also found the boxes under the bed to be a perfect fort for a little kitten to explore. We got used to the sound of little paws jumping from lid to lid.
After less than a day, Rusty became Loki, the Norse god of mischief and chaos. As small (2.9 lbs) as he was, he was fast as greased lightning at getting into everything within his reach. Nothing was safe if he could reach it. And if you were in the room, he wanted to be near you. By “near” I mean in your lap or directly under your feet. To reach your lap, he would climb your leg like it was a scratching post, leaving small but painful rips in your skin. Since the guy is effectively the same color as our hardwood floors, Luanne and I both managed to accidentally kick him several feet across the bedroom. While it’s terrifying to feel something against your foot as you take step and then see a little kitten spinning and sliding across the floor Loki was not injured in either accident. We just learned to always look down before taking a step.
Mackie rarely spends time in our bedroom, preferring to sleep in the other bedroom or in the living room. She was curious about the new smells and the mewing coming from inside but not overly so. And we kept her out of the kitchen when Loki was in there with us. If Mackie asked to come in we let her but we kept Loki out of reach. They watched each other but nothing more than that.
We’ve had Loki now about a month and he’s fully integrated into the family. Mackie likes being the big sister, with the emphasis on BIG. She wrestles with him playfully but makes certain to be on top at the end. When Loki cries uncle she quickly lets him up with a proud look of satisfaction. No hissing, no angry yelling, and most importantly, no blood.
According to the staff at the SPCA, Loki was found orphaned at a young age and bottle fed by a foster family until he could transition to solid food. Now, he self-soothes by sucking on one of his feet. It’s his way of reliving the times when sucking filled his belly and made him feel safe.He does this constantly while nestled in Luanne’s lap or on her chest in bed. I think he’ll outgrow this self-stimming but if he doesn’t it’ll only mean a wet paw on Luanne when Loki drops off to sleep.
Ed
