Friday Cat Blogging: Those #@$?&* Kids Are Back!
Kevin and I recently visited his parents, Jack & Fern, at their home in the Finger Lakes region of New York state. We celebrated two slightly belated holidays: Mother's Day and Fern's birthday. Pictures here.
Jack and Fern have a cat, Misty. Misty only recently began living with them. She was a stray living near them. She had her newest litter and a couple of older kits with her when Jack & Fern were able to trap her to get her spayed. Kudos to Jack & Fern for spaying her!
They kept the cats in a heated room off of their garage. They couldn't bring any of the cats inside bc their resident cat, Reilly, would not abide other cats in the house. In the meantime, we ended up taking Miles & Lizzie home with us (ostensibly to foster and socialize them iot find them a new home, which we did: said new home is our home).
Unfortunately, the lone surviving older kit got out of the room one day and never returned. Misty also got out, but she returned, albeit with a mouth injury. The vet thinks Misty may have climbed under a car's hood for warmth (it was winter then) and been injured when the car was started up. She was gone for about a week and then returned to the house with her poor mouth all busted up. Jack & Fern brought her to Cornell's vet school where she got all fixed up. Apparently, Cornell has some kind of good Samaritan program to provide low cost care for strays that area folks help. Kudos to Jack & Fern for taking care of her! Kudos to Cornell for offering a low cost program!
It was roughly around this time that, sadly, the majestic resident cat Reilly died. Reilly's death had the silver lining of allowing Misty to come live inside the house, where she's been ever since. She is a timid cat, although she's getting used to Jack & Fern and is staying out more and more when they're around. She also enjoys playing with toys with them. She does allow some petting and scratching. Keep the faith! She'll continue to come around. That she allows you to pet and scritch her is very good.
We took Miles & Lizzie with us during this recent visit. It had been about 6 months or so since we took the kittens home. We wondered how the three - Misty, Miles & LIzzie - would do together.
First, they had to meet each other. But before even that could happen, Miles & Lizzie had to come out from behind the water heater.
Lizzie:
Miles:
That's pretty much where they stayed until we peeps all went to sleep our first night there. And Misty stayed under her peeps' bed. Then they were all out and about during the night. We could hear the sounds of their explorations and Misty's concerned meows when she obviously met up with a kitten.
Misty mostly stayed away while people were awake and about. She's still getting used to Jack & Fern; I think it was very disconcerting to her to have two more people in her home. I did get one picture of Misty during a rare foray abroad:
Lizzie takes after her mother very much. The kittens were out more during our second day there. They enjoyed playing with toys.
Misty would sit in the window in our bedroom at night. She hightailed it out of the room if she saw me looking at her. Her kits enjoyed sitting in that window during the day.
By our last day there, they were looking pretty darn comfortable and at home.
I think Jack and especially Fern would have been delighted if we left Miles & Lizzie to live with them and Misty. Given time, I think Misty and the kittens would have become thick as thieves. Although Misty is timid, I think all three cats share a similar easygoing (wrt inter-kitty communication and interaction) nature. Kevin put the kebosh on that. I had asked him what he would say if his parents asked to have the kittens back. His reply: 'Over my dead body.' You heard it here first.
I feel obliged to note, if only for legal reasons, that the morning after I recounted the above conversation to Jack & Fern, Fern inquired of Kevin if we had wills, what would happen to our cats if we died, etc. She suggested that he make sure our wills say who we want to care for our cats if we die. She also offered to take in Miles & Lizzie. So, my dear readers, remember this post when if something happens to us....
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