Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

New scratching post

As I hinted a few days ago, this is going to be a big weekend for The Gryphon and I as we welcome a new housemate, namely a kitty.

My mom has been feeding the stray cats in her neighborhood, and as she's been able to, she's been capturing them and taking them to the vet to be spayed or neutered. But there were a few she wasn't able to get close to, and one of those hat kittens about 12 weeks ago.

The Gryphon and I talked about adopting one. We gave it serious consideration, because taking on a new pet is a responsibility for the life of the pet. But he says he likes cats, and we know my dog, Una, gets along well with cats and would probably like to have a furry friend in the apartment.

So after discussions about practical things, such as where to put the litter box, we spoke to our landlord. He immediately assented, so we called Mom and told her the news. We'll travel to Central Pennsylvania on Saturday to choose a kitty.

Our only stipulation is that we prefer the kitty be light colored, since we've just gone to a lot of trouble to decorate our apartment so as not to show Una's hair. We have three choices, as I understand it, two females and a male. We'd probably prefer a female, because I think they'd be less likely to want to roam, and kitty will have to be an indoor cat.

One of the possibilities is a female my cat calls Sweetpea. She is the cat Mom rescued from her dogs, who were toying with it in the back yard. Sweetpea lives up to her name and is very friendly. Mom is reluctant to give her up, although my sister says she can probably be convinced. Goodness knows she doesn't need more cats.

Then there's the kitty she calls Peanut, another light colored female which is more standoffish towards people, although Mom says she's been trying to get her more used to people. So I don't know if Peanut would even want to live with us.

The final possibility is an orange kitty, a male kitty whom Mom says is also friendly. Sounds like a lot of good choices, so I figure we'll meet the kitties on Saturday and make a choice at that time.

My sister tells me she and her husband will make a trip to have dinner with everyone on Saturday night. It will be nice to see them, especially since they weren't able to make it to the house warming party The Gryphon and I held a couple weekends ago.

I'm excited about the new kitty but nervous, too. We went to Petco this week and bought a bunch of kitty stuff: bed, scratching post, food and water dishes, food, litterbox, litter, litter scooper, toy, catnip, everything we could think of, pretty much.

As we were checking out, the clerk said, "Somebody's getting a new home." We told her yes, we were picking it up this weekend.

My sister is very excited for us. Of course, she has two cats, and one of them, Jellybean Bonanza, she's had longer than she's had her dog, Emma. I always thought I was more of a cat person, so it will be nice to have a cat around again. But we need to make sure Una still gets a lot of attention, because I don't want her to feel left out. I'm hoping she'll make a new friend and therefore have a companion for when we're out. Hopefully, we'll make a happy little family.

Copyright 2005 by Alyce Wilson

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