Please note that all blog posts before 8 April 2007 were automatically imported from LiveJournal. To see the comments and any LiveJournal-specific extras such as polls and user icons, please find the source posting at http://brianenigma.livejournal.com/2003/09/Today marks the arrival of a little pseudo-Siamese. She is not a purebread, but Siamese enough for government work. Her shelter name is “Elaine.” Her name at home has not yet been determined. While it may be funny to call her “the one who cannot be named,” for the purposes of this entry, she will be called Newbee.
Yes, she is Siamese. Yes, she talks. All the way home, she had nice prolonged little mews (not loud, just long). She is a total mouser when she is awake, which does not seem to be very much. The two kittens are the same age, but The Precious is about twice the size/weight as Newbee. Things were fun when they were first introduced, for certain values of “fun.” The Precious has now been here about two days and was just starting to think of the bathroom as home–and along came this little scrappy thing with big ears. There was much noise and hissing at first. A few hours later, I believe it was transformed into a “look how cute I am playing with the toys” competition. I think they were taking out their aggression on the toys and not on each other. Now they are at a “I acknowledge and tolerate you, but will not interact with you” stage. I think I almost managed to teach them which food, water, and litter box is theirs. There was a big pissing contest (literally) over the litter boxes. Newbee knows her food bowl, but The Precious still seems to want to own both.
At the shelter, Newbee was a big sleepyhead. Every time I saw her in the big glass room, she was sleeping against another kitten. When I got to play with her, she ran around and chased at things until tired, then curled into my lap. When she was returned to the room, she found another kitten to sleep against.
At home, it turns out she is a master manipulator. She knows she is much smaller than The Precious. She also knows she is much smarter than her. There were other stories of her S-M-R-T-ness, but the only one that comes to mind now follows. The Precious was getting her medication–the eye drops, ear drops, and dropper of oral liquid. Newbee was asleep at the beginning of the process and was awakened by it. She came over to investigate, and maybe play, realized things were bad for one reason or another, then went back to her blanket and feigned sleep–opening an eye every once in a while to see what was up.
The Precious has started to graduate from the bathroom and has now been let into the adjoining bedroom (my office) for short durations, under close supervision. Right now, she is lounging on the static discharge mat under one of the desks, right next to me. She is rather freaked out by the printer randomly coming to life and printing a page. She is also a little dazed and confused by the mists of water that seem to hit her every time she tries to get on the desk. Correction, she is now on my lap/chest, intrigued by the finger movements over the laptop keyboard. Correction, she jumped onto my shoulder and onto a bookshelf.
Photos (once again) forthcoming.
