Churches in Venice

I was a confirmed dog person until this little creature showed up on my back porch about four years ago.

She doesn't like churches, Venice, or traveling, by the way.

Remember Art Linkletter and “kids say the darndest things”? This is one of those stories.

Last weekend I was playing Wii with my nephew, Mason, who recently turned 7 years old. I’m a novice when it comes to video games – he’s much better than I am. So I got to a place in the game where I was flummoxed, and I said out loud, “I don’t know what to do now.”

Mason said matter-of-factly, “Use your intuition, Aunt Anne.” It just cracked me up! I immediately wondered, are they teaching that in North Carolina public schools these days? So I asked him where he’d learned about intuition.

His answer was, “From Scooby-Doo.” (!) He went on to explain that there’s a character in the cartoon named Daphne who talks about using your intuition to figure things out and that intuition is kind of like a feeling. Go figure!

It was good advice too because when I stopped trying to figure Wii out and just went with the flow, I began playing much better.

Oh my gosh, this is so unbelievable. I seem to have a new kitten! Yesterday I had a big playdate planned with my nephews – my brother was bringing them over to my house, we were going to spend the whole day together, and then I was going to take them home last night (they live about 45 minutes away from me).

Well, when they arrived at my house yesterday morning, they had brought a kitten! On their way to my house, they saw this tiny little thing in the middle of a very busy highway; they saw her almost get hit by a car. So they pulled over and my brother managed to grab her. I’m calling her “her” though I’m not 100% sure about that.

So they brought her to me because my sister-in-law is allergic to cats. The little thing is absolutely adorable, black and white with blue eyes. My nephews are madly in love with her and I think I am too. She is very sweet and cuddly and purrs every time I pick her up.

BUT….LuLu is not happy at all about having a kitten in her house. She is very stressed and tense, and is hissing and baring her teeth at the kitten. I don’t know if this is going to work out, but Stan told me to give them time. I’ve been thinking about getting a second cat for a while now, so maybe this is the one, but if LuLu really prefers to be an only child, I may have to find another home for the little one.

I moved a bunch of junk out of my guest bedroom, and hopefully it's safe and kitten-proof; that’s where she is right now while I’m at work. She’s very smart….already using the litter box, and she’s eating and drinking. I have an appointment to take her to the vet tomorrow. It’s so exciting but I am kind of freaking out! Going to try to get my work done asap so I can leave early today. Photos coming soon!

Oh, we are calling her Maria. I said a bunch of names that I like, and that’s the one the nephews chose. Davis had learned a Spanish song at kindergarten about Maria, and he started singing it to her. Yesterday, I told the boys that we were going to have to change our playdate plans since we couldn’t go off and leave the cats alone. Mason said, “That’s okay, taking care of a life is more important than playing” which was so sweet and really, a very profound thing for a 7-year old boy to say.

What a crazy day. I woke up to a flood in the bathroom but managed to get a plumber fairly quickly and was only two hours late for work. Now I'm rushing since I have to leave early to take the kitten to the vet this afternoon. Oh, and my home computer has died. Crazy!

The kitten seems perfectly content in her little safe room. She purrs every time I come in and just melts my heart. She's doing very well and it's so much fun to watch her play - she's kinda gawky and her pounces end up being flips and somersaults!

And LuLu seems a bit more calm, though we did have a bit of hissing outside the door this morning. I'm just going to keep them separate for a while and give LuLu time to adjust to this big change in her world. I think she will come around.

Well, the vet confirmed that she's a girl, so Maria is definitely her name. She weighs 1.6 pounds and is approximately 6 weeks old, so we gave her a birthday of April 1. And she's healthy! She was so good in the cat carrier and in the car - she just seems pretty calm and unflappable for a kitten. She didn't object to the vet messing with her either.

She's too young to start getting her shots, so I'll take her back in three weeks. Now we've just got to bring LuLu around. They are "visiting" under the bedroom door and LuLu continues to hiss. I got some great advice from the Slow Talk pet blog about how to help LuLu accept the new member of the family. It might take some time but I have confidence that LuLu will come around, because she is really such a loving and sweet cat.

When Maria and I arrived at the vet's office, we had to sit in the car for about ten minutes until this incredible hail storm passed by. I've never seen anything like it - walnut-sized hail was coming down so fast that the ground became completely covered and it looked like it had snowed. And the hail hitting the car was so loud, but Maria just sat in her carrier and looked at me and didn't seem scared at all.

LuLu

Maria

Well, we are a happy family now. LuLu has accepted Maria, and I no longer have to keep Maria in her saferoom although I do make her sleep in there because otherwise, LuLu and I wouldn’t get any rest!

It’s kinda funny that here I am with two cats, and I didn’t go out to adopt either one of them, both of them just showed up at my house! A co-worker’s husband said that the cats were given to me by the Egyptian goddess Bastet, who is some kind of mystical protector of cats who helps them find their chosen person. I had to google Bastet since I’d never heard of her and sure enough, she’s an ancient cat goddess who’s been around for over five thousand years.

Yesterday at the vet, a nurse took one look at Maria and laughed and said, “She looks like Trouble!” I had to laugh too because it’s just so true! Don’t let that angelic face fool you, she is a Wild Child. Sometimes LuLu looks at me with this long-suffering expression as if to say, “Do you really think it was a good idea to bring this crazy creature into our nice peaceful home?” That’s usually after Maria has pounced on LuLu’s head or bitten her tail or harassed her in some way. No bloodshed between them, but I have scratches all over my legs where Maria has tried to climb me. She is so wide open and so much fun to watch. She does this little “spook dance” that cracks me up….she arches her back like the classic Halloween cat and then hops around flat-footed on all four feet, it’s hilarious.

LuLu is being remarkably patient. We haven’t had any sweet cuddly naps or grooming like Andasamo has had, but they do play and chase and wrestle. And I think LuLu is enjoying the company for the most part. When LuLu first showed up on my back porch and I decided to take her in, I had two dogs, both of whom have passed away since then. LuLu loved those dogs so much, and she’s a pretty outgoing and social cat overall, so I think it’s good that she has a sister now.

Maria has gained one pound in the past three weeks since I got her, so she’s up to 2.5 pounds. She started getting her shots yesterday which wasn’t too traumatic, although she hollered all the way to the vet and all the way back home; she did not like being closed up in her carrier. The vet said she’s a happy healthy kitten.

Photos by Stan (thanks!)

I went to a conference a couple of weeks ago and when I got home, I discovered that I was missing one earring from my favorite pair. I emailed the folks at the college where the conference was held to see if I’d dropped it in the dorm where I stayed, but they couldn’t find it. The earrings aren’t valuable but they are my favorite dangly ones, plus a friend made them so they have great sentimental value. I was bummed!

A few days later, another earring was missing. I was starting to get suspicious but I didn’t have any proof. Then I came home from work one day and found a completely different earring lying on the hallway floor.

I do have a jewelry box (with a lid) on my dresser in the bedroom, but I also have several ceramic dishes where I throw jewelry that I wear often. The next day, I found another earring on the floor of my bedroom.

Finally, I caught the perpetrator in the act. It was Maria the magpie kitten who has developed a fascination with shiny objects, it seems. I walked into the bedroom and found her on the dresser rummaging through my stuff and then she hooked one earring with one of her claws and jumped down and ran off with it. She soon dropped it and went on to other mischief (she doesn’t have much of an attention span).

So after that, I did a thorough search of the house, under the beds and behind the sofa, and found all missing earrings including my favorite one. Everything is now in the jewelry box with a lid where Miss Sticky Paws can’t get to it. Case closed, mystery solved.

Here’s the guilty party:

These things crack me up. Maria is growing so fast but she has a ways to go to catch up to these enormous whiskers!

She and LuLu are completely bonded now - they are best friends. I saw LuLu try to groom Maria a few times but Maria wanted to play and wrestle instead, then one day when Maria was a little sleepy, she cuddled up to LuLu and let her lick her head.

Then a few days later, Maria was with me in the kitchen, and we went into the living room where LuLu was asleep on the couch. Maria jumped up, put her paw on LuLu's back and started grooming LuLu! LuLu was startled at first but then she relaxed and let the kitten do it. So sweet. And both of them groom me, so we are a clean and happy bunch.