Sunday, February 6, 2011

New addition to our family

I'm not talking about our new grandson. He's in California. Mother and child are doing fine. And his father is doing the 'delirious father' thing with photographs. But being a modern father, he has created a whole Flicker account full of photos and Videos (!) of this now 5 day old child.
(I have the one picture that I treasure -- one of my oldest daughter with her newborn baby. That's the only picture I need.)

I'm talking about a different addition to our family.
We have been adopted by a wandering male cat. (I TOLD my husband not to put food out, but he's an old softie.) We simply don't need to have three cats. We don't. Okay, he was skin and bones when we first saw him, but still....

One cat would have been fine.
But she's getting old, so last year we got a kitten. (or was it 2 years ago? How time flies when you're too busy to think.)
Two cats in a household is quite enough, thank you. We don't need to be like the family next door with their 20 or more cats. (We've lost count and have no idea how many cats they now have.)

This cat, this male grey tabby cat, seems to have been an abandoned cat, probably from the nearby apartments. People come and go all the time from there. How do we know he used to be owned by people? It just happens that my husband has let this cat come into the house, while I'm at work. He helps himself to our cat's food (much growling from our cats, but that doesn't stop him), uses the kitty litter box (hey -- he has the whole outdoors and he comes in to use OUR litter?), and then settles himself down in MY chair, purring madly. Obviously a cat who was used to living with people and loved it when allowed to come visit us.

The 11-year-old calls him, "Grey-Stripe," a name from her favorite Warriors book series by Erin Hunter.

Okay, I admit he's charming, except when he sprays IN the house. (I did say he was a MALE cat, didn't I? an unfixed male.)
So far he just visits.
But if he intends to stay, we're taking him to the Vet.
-wendieO

3 comments:

Karen Packard Rhodes said...

The best exercise for a cat is another cat, and if your primary cat is very old, then you may need to keep this one in mind to exercise your younger one when the older one does go to the great cat condo in the sky.

As for your neighbor, maybe you should alert animal control? They can't be taking the best care of that many cats. It just isn't possible. That, and the idea that your community may have a law limiting the number of pets one can have in one's home.

Congrats on the new grand, too! Wonderful!

Chip Old said...

I am not an old softie! You know perfectly well that cats have staff, not owners, and we lowly humans have very little to say in the matter. Grey Stripe has determined that Ariana and I are suitable staff, so he allows us to serve him. :-)

Ariana said...

Graystripe is a great new addition to our family. Plus, he dosn't need much caring for. He'll just waste a day sleeping on Grandmom's chair. :-) And you spell his name all together. No hyphen. (Graystripe)