American Pie: Cats En-Suite
...Though they had grown since we’d last seen them, they still seemed tiny and defenseless. Tiny they unquestionably were, but far from defenseless, as we would later discover...
John Merchant and his wife are getting to know the newcomers in their home, Siamese kittens Ling Ling and Nikkei
If you’ve been following my recent columns, you’ll know that my wife and I were waiting for two Siamese kittens to be old enough to leave their mother. Finally, the day for which we had been eagerly waiting came three weeks ago. Half in excitement and half in trepidation, we again made the trip to the breeder, this time with a cat carrier on the rear seat of our car.
Though they had grown since we’d last seen them, they still seemed tiny and defenseless. Tiny they unquestionably were, but far from defenseless, as we would later discover. The journey home passed without a meow. We worried about the silence, but resisted the temptation to open the carrier on a busy interstate highway.
Once home we couldn’t wait to release our charges and welcome them into our/their home. Ling Ling and Nikkei emerged from the box yawning and stretching, but apparently no worse for the journey. From then on, through the following week, it was all hide and seek.
There are many places in our condo where two kittens can hide, but many more that we didn’t know about. The boys found them and grudgingly showed us. We worried that their reclusiveness might indicate that they wouldn’t be friendly, but it turned out this behavior was just part of their settling in process.
There were plenty of other things we could worry about, mostly connected to their input and output. The breeder had given us a set of guidelines about what and when to feed them, and how to cater for their effluent that turned out to be mostly erroneous, so it was trial and error with the food, the feeding times and the brand of cat litter.
Life for all of us was just fun and games. There was the food game – will they eat it, will they not? If they polished it off, was there enough? If they didn’t, was there too much or wasn’t it to their liking? Then there was the poop game. It started with “Find the poop,” with us wailing “We know what it is, but please tell us where it is.”
Were their little piles too soft, too much, too little, the wrong color etc.? All of which brought back to me the birth of my first child. I had forgotten that diaper examination was at least a twice daily treat. Fortunately I’m a lot less squeamish than I was in those days.
Just as we thought we had the situation under control, “The Boys” decided that their litter box wasn’t the most fun place to do their daily movements. Panic time! Was it the brand of litter? Was it that they were sharing one tray (as the breeder had told us to do)? First thing, change the brand of litter. No cigar. Next, buy another litter box. Magic! Breath again.
Another day, another challenge. Nikkei, the seal point was wolfing his food and a good part of his brother’s. Ling Ling, being a blue point, was of slighter build, but nevertheless looked underfed. What to do? What to do? Perhaps a separate food bowl - the breeder assured us that sharing a bowl was fine. Now, with his and his bowls, the feeding problem went away. More magic.
If all this sounds as though we’re a couple of neurotic cat novices, it does us a disservice. We’ve both had cats before, separately and together, but only one at a time. Two cats, siblings yet, adds a whole new dynamic. For starters they consult with each other before presenting their response to us. If they are on the outs with us, they still have each other for comfort. And so on.
Three weeks after they came into our lives, things are settling down nicely; for now anyway. The boys are growing noticeably each day, and delighting us with their play-fighting, and their snuggling in the evenings while they watch TV on our laps.
It’s a real treat to observe their developing personalities, and the way they have changed from our first impressions.
They continue to test their boundaries, and it remains to be seen who will win in that regard. As the saying goes, “The best laid plans of cats, mice and men…”
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To read earlier episodes of the Kitten Adventure, and columns concerning many other subjects, please click on
http://www.openwriting.com/cgi-bin/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=1&search=john+merchant
And do visit John's Web site
http://home.comcast.net/~jwmerchant/site/
