If you had asked me a few weeks ago if I would get a cat I would have told you I wanted one, but I would rationalize myself out of getting one. Since then my friends Timika and Rory got two cats, Blinky and Inky. Blinky is a little kitten who was born with no eyes. She is too little for surgery right now, so the holes where her eyes would have been are not sewn shut. They got Inky to be her friend and companion, thinking Blinky might need some help. When they got home they realized Blinky did not need any help, and was clearly the main cat in that house. Inky and Blinky did not get along very well and fought a lot. It is normal for kittens to fight, but Blinky could not defend herself very well, and Inky’s claws were getting in her eye holes. As a result Timika and Rory had a kitten they could not keep.
I had met both Inky and Blinky, and they are both wonderful cats. When Timika said she needed to find another home for Inky I volunteered. I was excited to have a pet, because living alone sucks! (I wish I still lived with my college roommates – they were the best!) I prepared my apartment, put away the non-kitten friendly chemicals, decorations, and food items, and I bought a litter box, kitten food and some toys. The only catch was that 4 days after I got Inky from Timika and Rory, I would be heading back to the US for Christmas. I talked with Timika and Justin and they agreed they would come to my place to feed Inky. They both already had a cat (Blinky at Timika and Rory’s and Justin was watching a friends cat) so they would not be able to keep him in there place.
With everything sorted out and ready, Inky moved in. This kitten is so loving and will curl up with you and purr during the day… at night when you would want him to curl up and be calm, he decides it is time to play. For the first two nights I had him he woke me up at least every two hours to play. He did not understand me when I told him I wanted to sleep – and shutting him out of my room only led to really loud, and sad, meowing. The third night was an improvement. I forced him to play a lot before I went to bed and then I turned off all the lights and left him asleep on the couch. I think when he woke up to play he didn’t think I was there and just played with his toys… I am not sure why it worked, but it did, and I was happy to sleep.
The other thing I am still getting used to is how bad he smells. This cat has the worst breath ever. I know it is from the wet food he eats – and I know he needs the food so he can gain the weight he needs, but oh my lord is it bad. There are times when he tries to cuddle up to me, or sit on my shoulder, but I have to push him away because I cannot take the bad breath. When I get to the US I am going to look for cat breath mints. I want to love him, but when he breathes on me, it gets a little hard. The good news is, most of the time he is not breathing on me, and he is really cute and fun to play with.
I love that I now have a great kitten (although to be honest, he is not a great as my first cat Rupert Sampson Bean, or my second cat Finnebar Nehemiah Sprout – there was something special about them), but I am nervous I am becoming the “Cat Lady”.
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