the kitten. The spud had yesterday off from school (and, what’s up with that, I have to ask – when I was a kid, we never got Wednesday off in addition to Thursday and Friday! Kids these days…) We left the house around ten to pop over by the office so I could type up a quick license for Fred to fax to a customer, and after that I swung by the credit union to deposit Fred’s bonus check. (side note: every time a somewhat large amount of money comes into the company, the owners immediately begin salivating for a bonus. This time, I had the bonus checks made out and ready to go before the customer had even called with their visa number. )
After we sat in line for about 15 minutes at the credit union (really, what was I thinking? it was the day before Thanksgiving!), I surprised the spud with lunch at her very favorite chinese restaurant, where we hit the excellent buffet a couple of times each. Then it was my intention to take her to the movies to see “The Bachelor”, since I doubted she’d be much interested in “Being John Malkovich” or “Dogma”. When we pulled into the parking lot ten minutes before the movie was to start, the line was about 30 people long. “Huh,” I said, nonplussed. “Want to go to the movie store instead?” “Okay,” said the always easygoing spud. As I turned the truck around and pulled back out of the parking lot, I had a stellar idea. “Want to go visit thekittens?” “Yeah!” the spud said eagerly.
As we drove in the direction of The Classic Cat, I called Fred on the cellphone (yes, I have one of the obnoxious things. there a problem with that?) and said “Hey, there were too many people at the movie theater. We’re going to visit thekitties!” Fred sighed dramatically and said “Just remember, if you get one, you have to clean the litter box out every day (instead of taking turns, as we had been doing).”
We walked through the door, and she spotted me, and began howling immediately. Now, I’m not a dumbass. I know she’s probably been doing that to everyone. But, still. When I took her out of the cage and started petting her, she acted like she was home.
The spud checked out all the kittens, and then went into the room where they keep the adult cats and petted all of them. I actually, you will be shocked to learn, put the kitten back in her cage and told the spud it was time to go. “Can’t we get a kiiiiiitten?” she begged. “Oh, please, let’s get a kitten! I’ll help take care of her!” Well, I resisted for a few minutes, then told her to get my wallet from the front seat of the truck before I changed my mind.
And here she is:
Isn’t she adorable? Fred thinks she’s ugly, but I think she’s about the cutest thing ever. She’s ten weeks old. We haven’t decided on a name yet, but I think Suzy would be a good name. I will, of course, keep y’all posted.
The Boys are hugely freaked out. Spanky has dealt with us bringing kittens home – Stimpy and Snoopy, to be exact – but neither of them was nearly this little. He won’t go near her, only watches her carefully from a distance. Snoopy is interested in her, and has sniffed her from up close, but he isn’t sure what to make of her. Stimpy thinks she’s the spawn of satan, and hisses every time she gets within two feet of him. This morning, she was in the master bedroom closet using the litter box we put there for her, and he went into the bathroom to watch. She apparently finished and was coming back out through the bathroom, and out came Stimpy, running like the hounds of hell were after him, and hissing to beat the band. It’s hilarious, considering that he’s ten times bigger than she is. Spot isn’t particularly freaked out, but he’s not a big fan, either. He’s been through the new-kitten thing before. He has hissed at her once or twice, but it was kind of half-hearted. For her part, the kitten isn’t particularly interested in the Boys. She’ll glance at them from time to time, but mostly ignores them.
Happy Thanksgiving! Did everyone have a good one? I slept in until 7:30 or so (because I was up several times in the night with the kitten, and even when I did sleep, I had horrid dreams of rolling over and crushing her, or of Snoopy kicking her ass), and then had to run to the store for Tender Vittles and soda and other stuff I can’t recall. When I got home from the store, Fred informed me that we only had dill pickle relish for the devilled eggs, instead of sweet pickle relish. So I went back out and got pickle relish and tin foil.
We ate dinner at noon, and boy did it kick ass. Have I mentioned what a great cook Fred is? He did 99.9% of the meal himself, and only asked me to make a few things. We bought the turkey from a place called Tim’s Cajun Kitchen (a smoked cajun turkey, even), and it wasn’t that great — kinda dry, and the smell of smoke has been following me around since we ate. Everything else rocked, though. We had cornbread dressing, cranberry sauce, summer squash casserole, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, broccoli, corn, and devilled eggs. There are tons of leftovers, so that should carry us through the weekend.
Sorry about all the kitten talk. I’ll try to keep it to myself for the most part — I know it’s boring to those of you who aren’t cat lovers, and probably boring to those of you who are!
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11/25/1999