KITTENS!

For the last year or two in Japan, any time I had something about my job or living in Japan that was particularly grating, my mantra was "X more months left, then I get kittens." We'd have to choose a place to live in Indiana that would allow pets, and since we ended up buying a house, there are no pet prohibitions. The plan was to get two kittens, preferably litter mates, so that when we're not around they have each other to play with. I went to the local pet shelter, Almost Home Humane Society, a few times to take a look at the cats and kittens available. They had a LOT of cats, and Layla, a Brown Mackerel Tabby (according to the vet), caught my eye. One of the excellent workers there took the time to help me check out Layla, who was very playful and well-behaved and nice. I've only gotten one scratch from her in the two weeks she's been here, and that was my fault. She was just over a year old, so I wanted to get a cute little kitten to be her friend.

We went back into the kitten room and started taking the kittens in with Layla, one by one. We tried a bigger male 6 month old, but Layla is a fairly small cat and was scared by the larger, more playful kitten. We tried two little black kittens, Emerald and Sapphire. Emerald was really freaked out by Layla, who just wanted to sniff hello. Lots of hissing and claws from the 2-month old, so not her. Sapphire was not exactly pleased with being put in with the larger cat, but neither was she overly upset by it. No major adverse reactions, so Sapphire was a maybe. I decided to go get Lee before making a final decision.

Fairly typical sleeping position

When Lee came, the dog visitation room was the only room that was open, and Layla was quite upset being in that room. She was very nervous and tense, and not the same cat I'd seen that morning. We tried one more little black kitten, Banzai, but she was so aggressive for a 3-month old that Layla was running from her. Sapphire it was, though Lee still wasn't sure about Layla.

The kitten needed to get spayed the next morning, but Layla could come home right away. At first, she was a bit cautious, not really sure what was going on. After exploring the house and realizing she could wander just about anywhere, she started running around the house, running into things (example: face-first into a table leg at speed) and generally being happy she was out of a cage. Lee still wasn't convinced she was a good cat (I had to go out to run some errands), so he brought her into the office in the hope that she'd calm down. By the time I got back, she was cuddled up and purring in his lap as he was working on his computer. She's pretty much his cat now and spends at least some time every day curled up in his lap while he's at the computer.

We brought the kitten home the next day and there haven't been any problems between the two of them. She seems to have two speeds, asleep and turned up to eleven and she doesn't stop purring. We don't particularly like the name Sapphire, but haven't settled on a final name yet. Princess Murderface Cuddlekins (Lee: a joke name created in Japan where Ana picked part of a name and then I did) gets thrown about, and we've been calling her "Itty Bitty Kitty" or "Terrorista" depending on her level of activity as well.

I'm very happy to have them, and especially happy that they're (for the most part) very well-behaved and smart cats. Of course, more pictures on Flickr!