A Tale of Two Kitties

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity...the saga continues.

Gus hanging out with XiaoMing.

Chris and Kristen brought their kitty Gus to stay with us for a few weeks at Christmas before they returned to the US. Then we had four kitties (and one sadly out-numbered dog.) 

Best buds.

Gus and Puck became great friends, and they taught each other new and exciting things. 

Gus taught Puck there's a really big water bowl in the bathrooms.

Puck taught Gus how to jump really high. 

Actually, Gus never did learn how to get that high.

Gus and Puck flew back to the US a few days after Chris and Kristen left.

 Now I was back to two kitties. 

That evening, I got a phone call from the lady who had taken the other two kittens from the litter—Tiger and Wild One. She said they had to go back to the US unexpectedly and she hadn’t been able to find homes for the kittens; would I take them back—tomorrow?

I had two kitties for twenty-four hours. Then I was back to four kitties.

Four kitties rolling in the sun.

Noel and Xiaoming were not too excited about having these little ones back in their house. But they have all learned to at least tolerate each other.

 The kittens needed proper names—the previous family had let their two year old name them-“white one” and “black one”; not very imaginative and not even accurate for the brown tabby. So Tiger became Zadie and Wild One became Chloe.

Tiger=Zadie 

Wild One=Chloe

A couple of months later Chloe started rolling around, mer-owing and generally acting like a lovesick idiot. Knowing what that meant, I made an appointment with the vet for her and her sister. They came home all trussed up like turkeys—it made me laugh. I’ve never seen this kind of bandaging for spaying before!

Chloe looking like a rag kitty.

Mighty uncomfortable here.

Can't wait for this to be off!

Anytime now!

While contained in the bathroom, they "decorated" with toilet paper.

For some reason, having four cats seems to put me into the realm of extremism. I’ve had three cats and a dog before; I’ve had three dogs and two cats before: and I had five kids during both of those times. Now I have no kids, (well, excepting Ken) four cats and one dog, which equals five again. Maybe I just have an affinity with the number five?

Zadie insists on jumping down from the patio onto a roof area where her only way back in is through the window in the stairwell. Zadie is outside the window meowing to be let in; Chloe is on the inside letting me know her sister is locked out.

And that’s how I became a crazy cat woman.