Fearless on my breath...

Living in a house with 4 cats is...an experience. As I type this Lola is sitting beside me on the couch watching all the animated stuff on the screen with avid interest. She's arguably both the most intelligent and sensitive cat I've ever known, but also just territorial enough to make Pye's life a bit of a living hell. Add to that Hachi who's basically treating the house as her own personal military campaign. She actually waits in the morning until I open the door to let her out for breakfast then runs in the master bathroom to use Lola's litterbox. For some reason she's particularly interested in going after Lola and Lola is absolutely terrified of her.

Hachi follows me around from room to room and has ventured as far as the kitchen. She's also turned her kitty bed into her largest toy. I was walking into the hallway and there was the bed out in the middle of it upside down. Of course given that Pye dumped one of his white mice in his litterbox I suppose I can't complain.

Right now I kind of feel like all I'm doing is doling out food, cleaning litterboxes and attempting to make sure that everybody gets an equal amount of attention and affection. I have to remember that I'm doing a job with the two temporary inhabitants of the house, they're here to be socialized, after all. I'd say Lola is there already and quite ready to go out to a new home. Hachi...well she may take a little more work but she's coming along nicely.

More pics when I have a little time, now I've got to get ready for dance practice.

Very quickly, I've had every week night free this week (ok a little dance-related activity with Aelf on Monday night, but that's it) but a) Pye's on another vomiting jag, b) I've had some cleaning to do and c) I seem to have acquired a new feline friend.

Ok let me explain that last one. I've been randomly hearing a cat's cries for days. I believe I mentioned it to reluctantgenius when he was visiting and he gave me the "Uh-huh" look. Turns out I was hearing a kitty. Pye decided said kitty was his mortal enemy and flung himself at the patio door in an attempt to kill it. Well I went out the other morning and it was sitting across the street just watching my house so I knelt down and called it over and it came running. It appears to be a very young little lady, un-neutered if I'm any judge, and very skinny. She's also got the biggest blue-green eyes I've ever seen.

Well she's clearly friendly and intensely interested in the house so she hasn't lived outside all her life. She may be someone's pet but if so she's either run away or been abandoned. I can say she reminds me intensely of Pye when he first came into my life. She even makes the same frustrated little noises he does when I'm not giving him affection fast enough for his taste. Tonight when I brought her out some food and sat down to pet her she crawled right up into my lap and started kneading my lap far more carefully than Pye ever does and licked my arm. When I came inside later she got up on her hind legs to peer in the house hopefully.

Soooo, I'm going to try and box her this weekend and run her over to the humane society to see if she's been chipped. Then I'll see what the procedure is, either leaving her there so they can post her picture and info or bringing her home and fostering her in the meantime. But if she hasn't been spayed I will certainly pay for that regardless.

Of course the bigger question is, do I really want to even consider taking on another cat? Knowing full well that it could have a detrimental effect on Kage's rather tenuous health, not to mention the mental meltdown it would undoubtedly inspire in Pye. Ah well, no sense worrying about it now as she may be someone's beloved missing pet.

But speaking of Kage, she is continuing to do far better than I or her vet ever dreamed possible. I've even stopped giving her fluid treatments because she's completely well hydrated and eating like a horse. Literally everything I offer her she chows down on and she's regained everything she lost during the cancer and then some. She's like a young kitty again, it's just astonishing. The other day she actually flopped over and started playing with one of Pye's toys. I nearly burst into tears with outright joy.

I've got to chalk it up to two things, the amputation and the medication she's been on twice a day for most of this year. I've got to admit I'm rather looking forward to taking her back to the vet because he's just going to be giddy when he sees her. There is very little more adorable in this world than a giddy Sikh veterinarian.