2010 was a crazy year in cats.
Paws up and died this summer. Two days before, mrguy and I were laughing about how robust a 15-year-old cat she was. It was sudden and unbelievably sad.
The other cats went into a panic. Eyes roamed the house, sniffing Paws' noseprints on the kitchen window. Nose, stressed-out, developed boy cat problems and had to have an operation. Eyes collapsed and vomited when we returned from a vacation. All of us were sad about the loss of our kitty.
I decided that out there there was another black kitten for me to love. I started looking. I wanted to get someone off the street -- to help an abandoned kitten. I scoured the rescue organizations, including one run by the local real estate agent / cat lady. Her application asked for a description of the traffic pattern outside of our house and for our net worth. Lady, it's just a cat. Even I know that. She turned us down because we wouldn't agree to have an all-outdoors cat. Nut job.
It was the end of kitten season. The river of cats was dwindling to a trickle. Yet I knew that kittens were out there. The Boo had been born off-season, in November. I started going to pet stores. I saw a cute kitty. And then I went to the scuzzy pet store in the same mall as our veterinarian. I saw my kitty.
He was black like Paws and had enormous ears like Nose. I held him. He purred like a maniac. I had to have him. The next time we went to the grocery store I brought mrguy. There was another really sad kitten there who purred like an angel and hid from the older kittens in the cat box. She melted into his arms. We took them both. And now there are four.
The last two months have involved non-stop trips to the vet. The kittens were sick. They had many internal parasites and vitamin deficiencies and were very thin. They arrived as we were beginning a bathroom remodel. The older cats were upset at first, but have calmed down. Nose, who has favored his papa for many years, is now actually jealous of the kittens' attention and spends much more time with me.
As I said even before I knew it was true: four cats is good.
