Saturday, January 26, 2008

My new familiar

July 18th 2006 my beautiful cat Miss Pitty Pat died of kidney failure. From that day until Wednesday of this week (1/23/08) I hadn't been ready for another cat. Okay so maybe in the last couple months I had started making noises about getting another kitty and had been sort of looking on Craig's List and at the Dumb Friends League. I knew I wanted a Siamese or Siamese mix cat this time around instead of another Tabby because I was afraid I'd be comparing the new kitty to Miss Pitty Pat and that wouldn't be fair. I also knew I didn't have a lot of money to spend on rescuing a cat.

Wednesday night Jonathan discovered we did indeed have a mouse in the house as I had been telling him and encouraged me to step up the search for a new cat. His cat, Smoke, is 18 years old and spends all his time in the basement, so he wasn't going to help with the mouse situation. Anyway I digress, just before I went to bed on Wednesday night I checked Craigs list again and found what was listed as a Flame point Siamese in need of a new home for free! Even though it was 9:30 and I hesitate to call anyone that late, I did call about this cat whose name was Jade. I learned he was 6 months old, intact and in need of shots. His owner was giving him and his brother away because she was pregnant and due to deliver next month. We made arrangements for the cat to be delivered the next night. The owner wanted to check out the new home for her cat.

The next morning I told Jonathan about the newest member of our family and what his name was. We both agreed that Jade was not a good name for a male cat. Jonathan had always wanted to name a male "Chairman Meow" and we thought okay why not. When our new baby arrived we realized that it didn't feel right to call him Chairman Meow and that it wasn't his name. I suggested "Sinatra" since he has pretty blue eyes, but Jonathan nixed that saying it wasn't his name either. Jonathan suggested "Jack" which I nixed immediately since the neighbors dog's name is Jack. I had been toying with the name "Simon" previously to the "Chairman Meow" idea and suggested that. Jonathan and I both agreed that was the perfect name for him. In fact, Jonathan went so far as to say "Simon Says" so that's his name although we call him Simon and it fits so well.


As you can see, Simon is not a Flame point but a Tabby point. He has so much personality too!! I've been sleeping with him at night in the spare bedroom so he's not totally alone while he and the dogs make the adjustment. What a snuggle kitty he is. This little boy LOVES to be petted and stroked and loves to knead my hair.


And speaking of the dogs..........what a challenge this is going to be. They are curious and want to sniff him but he's terrified having never been around dogs before. I've ensconced him in the spare bedroom with toys, food, water and a litter box. During the day while I'm not home the door stays shut. When I am here the door is open and the baby gate is up so the boys can see him and vice versa and become familiar with each other. Only problem is when the boys see Simon they start barking and want to get in where he is, to sniff I hope. I've had to resort to their electronic collars to re-enforce that this is not acceptable. Today I'm going to bring him down and put him in Murphy's crate so they can all actually see each other without Simon hiding under the bed. Should be interesting.

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