I got a new kitty! I was beginning to wonder. They usually find me somehow. This one my
girlfriend rescued last summer. Last Friday she got stuffed into a pet carrier and hauled three hours to her new home. It's kind of a long term long distance romance. I'd been in her area with her since last summer but not out at her house to meet Silver, her new kitten. We run a mobile business and camp out together doing that a lot. I almost drove out to her house on my own to meet the little gal but never did. I really love cats, especially kittens! I never adopt kittens though because I'm gone too much.
Silver got to my house, brought over by a mutual friend that lives near me and she was one scared little kitty! She was really tiny and had to be bottle fed when my girlfriend found her and will never be a very big cat. Now she's about six months old and is the sweetest little grey/silver but kind of long and slender. Then she can turn into a holy terror in a blink as well!
When it looked like she would hide under my couch all night that first night, I got her out and took her to bed with me. Being in bed and being petted seemed alright with her and she was fine then, as long as I was in bed. She just crawled around a purred and came over for attention before finally settling down and going to sleep. The next day though, she decided hiding under the bed was her spot. I could go in and lay down and get her to come out and jump up on the bed to get petted. Other than that, she was not coming out! I put some food and water down just under the bed and she ate and drank some. I had also got her to eat a little the same way the night before under the couch.
I picked her up and brought her out into my living room a few time but she was terrified. Even on the couch being petted. As soon as I let her go, she bolted for the bedroom and hid under the bed! It was that way the whole first day. That night she slept with me on the bed and i was pretty sure I would get her to come out the next day.
I got out the trusty laser light my old cat buddy "Fatty" loved so much. I got Silver to come out and chase that around the bedroom some at first. She got bolder and would go just a little bit out the door after it but that was the line! After a little laser play I was out in the computer room online and would hear her in there meowing for me. I'd go back in and pet and play with her on the bed for awhile and then get up and try and get her to follow me out using the laser as bait. Nope! Not yet.
Later I settled down to watch a bowl game and before you know it a cute little head popped out from under my couch! She was tentative, head on a swivel and sniffing all around but came out to find me! After a little petting on the couch she began to explore. Oh, I had also put her cat box in the room by the food but wasn't sure if she'd used it or not. I'm pretty sure she didn't pee or poop anywhere else she wasn't supposed to though.
Before long she found where her real food and water place was in the kitchen. I have those ones that hold a lot and dispense what the need as they eat and drink but I'm a total Nazi about fresh water for animals! I'll always be emptying it out and changing it before she drinks much.
I didn't quite get her by christmas but she's my "Christmas kitty" from my girlfriend. Weather prevented our friend from bringing her to me in time. Two years ago I lost Fatty on Christmas weekend. He was a big ol' part Siamese tub of love. I called him Fatty because we never knew what his real name was. He was abandoned and I brought him home from my girlfriends cafe. We think he was about five when I got him and he got kidney disease pretty young for a cat like that. I gave him I.V. fluids myself to try and help him hold on but it didn't help much.
Fatty was a real cat to behold! Absolutely magnificent and would come when called like a dog. He loved everyone! Putting him down was one of the hardest things I ever did. the night i met him my girlfriend and I were bringing equipment back in to the cafe after hosting a comedy show and I told her I thought I heard a cat meow from downstairs. she said, " oh, he got in here again?" then up the stairs come this big old cat looking like he wanted to make friends. I picked him up and petted him and took him outside and let him go, thinking nothing of it.
A couple weeks later I was back over at the cafe and took a little nap out in our mobile bus and Fatty found me. The door was open and he came right in and jumped up and the bunk to take a nap with me. Even though he was kind of a stray i wasn't to worried. My girlfriend was pretty sure she knew who he had recently belonged to that dumped him. I made the mistake of saying I should maybe take him home and that was all there was to it! My girlfriend and the two other women that worked for her loved Fatty and I was stuck!
My girlfriend told me she had told everyone not to feed fatty but he just wouldn't go away. When we were shopping for food and everything for me to bring him home she slipped up and told me what she fed him! AH HA! BUSTED GIRLS! All three of them were feeding him! No wonder he was looking so good! Triple rations of left over clam chowder and sausage gravy will do that for a kitty on the streets! He ended up being my best buddy and it was so sad losing him.
Now I have Silver and she's using everything I had for Fatty, especially the scratching post. Fatty had no use for it and it was a good thing I'm an old bachelor type dude with old furniture. Yeah I have a long term girlfriend but most of the time that's the way it is. My stuff still has scars from my Fatty buddy. Silver on the other hand loves the scratching post and will have that ground down to a little nub before too long! It doesn't hurt that I put a toy mouse on a cord tied to it. One of those that has a little ring and string you pull that vibrates. Those are about worthless as they are meant to be used. But tie them onto some thing and leave them hanging for a cat to play with and they love them! They get ahold of it and pull it out and let go, it snaps back and buzzes and they go nuts!
Silver climbs all over the post after that mouse, even charges it and blows the scratching post over going for it! That's part of why I'm here I believe. Fatty got all the love he could have wanted and gave me as much in return. Now I have Silver that was no bigger than my girlfriend fist when she found her. She no doubt would have starved to death but now she gets spoiled to no end! I think it's me that really comes out ahead though.
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I hope you and Silver have many happy years together. Your story reminds me very much of my dad's relationship with his little Maine Coon, Licorice. 
What a way to start the day. Thanks!
I feel like I know these fur babies myself you describe them and what they do so well.
It's so amazing how quickly animals bounce back from having surgery. With each of my dogs the hardest part of post-surgery was trying to keep them generally relaxed after the first one or two days to give them time to heal up properly. I was in terror of them ripping out their stitches or otherwise pulling or twisting something that had been cut apart and put back together. I was basically unsuccessful as far as keeping them relaxed and generally calm though. Many a time I thought about duct taping them to the floor or wrapping them up in plastic sheeting like a papoose to keep them from jumping and running about despite my best efforts at trying to keep them at least generally on the ground rather than zooming about like a B-52.
Glad to know Silver is successfully fixed (and super inexpensive, too!) and well on the way to getting back to normal though a bit too quickly for anyone's taste given that zooming about like a B-52 bit. I think our pets relish freaking us out.
her. She gave her to me knowing I'd take good care of her though.
