Of cats and kittens
I know it's been awhile since I've been here; Facebook and Twitter have been adequate outlets for my thoughts lately. But I'm back on lj because I needed to write these events down while I'm still processing just what to do, and what happened.
I had a busy day at work yesterday. Senpai had bought 7:00 tickets to see Transformers, and I'd only just gotten home at 6:15. I rushed through dinner, feeling stressed out and short on time, when Senpai suggested he exchange the 7:00 tickets for later ones. I wasn't thrilled with the idea, determined to stick to the plan (especially since I had already contacted a friend with the details). Around 6:45 Senpai stepped out on the back porch to let the dog inside, and a couple of minutes later I heard him say, "Tiger Lily.... you need to see this." I went out expecting to see the dog doing something funny, or maybe some wild rabbits chasing each other around a bush, so I certainly wasn't expecting to see a 10-year old girl at the bottom of the steps with a wirey black kitten climbing all over our grill that was next to her. According to the girl, Skylar, the kitten's mom was run over by a car, so she was going door to door to see if anyone would take care of it, and that the kitten was a female which Skylar had named "Shiloh." As soon as I heard the name I knew that I was supposed to take care of this kitten. Why? Because my massage business has just taken off since my recent move to a place called Shiloh Chiropractic, in the town of Shiloh, IL. I really can't say no to a kitten anyway, but the name just sealed the deal. Skylar asked if we took the kitten if we wouldn't mind her coming to see her every so often. We had no problems with that, so we took Shiloh inside. Matt left to exchange the movie tickets and pick up kitten stuff from the pet store, while I gave Shiloh a bath to try to get the fleas off of her.
We already have two adult cats and a dog. The male cat, Vash, doesn't mind the newcomer one bit, and the dog could care less about anything smaller than her. My orange female cat, Gooch, however, is none too pleased about the kitten. Every time she sees Shiloh, Gooch will hiss. Karma's a bitch, though, because this is exactly what happened when I introduced a baby Gooch to my adult, female cat, Christmas, back in the day. Christmas never grew to like Gooch, and she even became quite depressed the longer Gooch stayed. I'm reminded of this every time Gooch hisses at Shiloh, but I don't know what to do different to try to get a better outcome.
So today I came home and took care of Shiloh. At one point I heard noises outside that I thought were kids playing. It was still daylight after all, so that idea made sense. Later, when it was dark, I had Shiloh purring in my lap, and the other two cats were quiet as well, so I was surprised at that moment to clearly hear a kitten meowing. I asked Senpai, "Do you hear a cat?" and he replied rather nonchalantly, "Yeah it's outside." This concerned me, and I was also disconcerted about his reaction, so I asked to clarify, "Outside?" He headed to the front door, "Yeah. Do you want me to go look?" He went out, and I followed shortly afterward to find a tuxedo kitten freaking out in our garden. It was a little boy, the same size as Shiloh. Of course, I couldn't leave this one outside without its mother either, so we took him in. We gave him food and introduced him to Shiloh. Not surprisingly, they were already well acquainted for being siblings and all.
One kitten was okay, but with two now I'm thinking that I can't do this to the two cats in this household we've already dedicated our lives to. I don't want my fun, happy Gooch to turn into another Christmas. And I have to wonder, did Skylar know about the boy kitten? Did she or her mother scheme an elaborate plan for her to find someone to take the girl and then drop off the boy later? Or did the boy just happen to wander down the street and meow outside the house where his sister was? I don't know. I certainly have quite a few questions for Skylar if we ever see her again.
I'm keeping my ears peeled for any more kitten mews outside my front door.