Adventures in feline care

 

What was I thinking???

 

Well, the answer to that question is easy - I wasn't.  I found this adorable little 10 week old kitten (now called Scout) crying pitifully (and loudly) near my house last Thursday, and when I learned she was abandoned all I knew was I couldn't just leave her out in the rain.  So I took her home, got her groomed to take care of the fleas, and promptly didn't think of much else until later. 

 

Stuff I should have thought about sooner includes:

• The cost of the vet bill for deworming, vaccinations, and disease testing, plus deworming for Atticus just in case (because Scout did indeed have worms).  FYI - it was A LOT.  And she still needs to be spayed.
• Atticus's response to Scout having free reign of the house.  I should have kept them separated from day one.  My well-adjusted, happy boy has turned into a surly old man in just a couple of days.  He paces the house, holes up alone, and bops her on the head, hisses, and/or runs away whenever she tries to play with him.
• The amount of effort it takes to keep a baby kitten from destroying my stuff, out of Atticus's litter box and food dishes (and him out of hers), as well as the energy it takes to keep her entertained and happy.  I thought having two cats would be marginally more work than one.  Yeah, not so.  And generally I just feel like if I'm keeping one of them happy then I'm neglecting the other one, and I feel guilty.
• Just feeding them is a pain!  I moved Atticus's dishes from the kitchen because that's where I block Scout off from the rest of the house.  So now he gets confused about where to eat at every meal, and she follows me whenever I have food in my hands, which scares him off from eating, which has totally thrown off his feeding schedule.  (Luckily he needs to lose a little weight anyway.)
• How much space we actually need to accommodate another cat, and how little space we actually have.

Overall it has been a somewhat stressful experience, punctuated by some cute moments and a few big laughs.  Hubs and I have decided to give it a couple of weeks to see how we all adjust before we commit to keeping Scout.  The good thing is she's young and really, really cute, so it shouldn't be any trouble finding her a good home if we can't keep her.  I've already had a couple of friends express interest, though it would be super nice if one of them was able to split the cost of the vet bills with us!  Seriously, I had no idea that it's much cheaper to adopt a kitten through a reputable group than to rescue one yourself.  They must get deep discounts on medical care.

 

So that's been my life for the past 4 days now.  This weekend I hit the halfway point in my pregnancy and things still seem to be fine.  Nothing much else to tell about that.  Well except that I'm finally going to go buy some maternity pants today.  I've been using a belly band with my regular jeans unzipped up until now, and it's starting to get annoying, so I figured it was about time.  I still have people tell me I don't look pregnant, to which I sarcastically respond, "Thanks, I guess that means I just look fat."  Just kidding, I don't really say that.  I just congratulate myself on my good genes and figure they're jealous bitches that I can be this far along and still order a beer without the bartender looking at me funny.  Okay I don't do either of those things either.  Sorry, I think my emotions are on overdrive lately.  I think it's time to get out of the house!