The Family Grows

We weren't planning to get new cats after Blue and Midas passed on, but, what are you gonna do when they just waltz in through the gate and start playing in your yard and the dogs didn't seem to mind either?

Oh, yes. The other part of it... When she waltzed in through the gate, she just waltzed into our hearts. She's not only newly arrived here at Casa Winjama, but she's newly arrived period - being only about seven to nine weeks old.

April 'Hi-Five' Sunshine

Dianna suggested we name her 'April', which seemed appropriate. I felt she needed a middle name too - for those times when she gets in trouble - "April Sunshine, get out of that this instance!" One of our other cats, a few years ago, had a middle name (Charlotte Ornsby). It was just so handy.

We gave her, in true Belizean fashion, a nick-name as well, 'Hi-Five.' That's because she keeps wanting to play patty cake with your finger.

Fairly soon after the incident at the gate, we took April upstairs into the house. It was obvious she was hungry. Dianna took some small custard bowls, which seemed perfectly sized for such a tiny entity, and dished up some canned dog food and water. This all disappeared in short order - several times too. Somebody was starved.

This Place Actually Has Food

All three dogs were very curious about what was going on with us bringing her into the house. We introduced them all, one at a time, partly so the dogs didn't get overly excited and inadvertently eat the little thing.

Any way, it turns out that we found the way to help them all make friends was with food. Everyone has their own bowl and 'broke bread' so to speak, together. Worked like a charm.

Food Makes Good Friends

Yesterday morning, I took April to Dr. Sheila for de-worming and to get a dose of spray flea killer. We've got her set up on the sequence for inoculations and neutering. Neutering will come in July. She weighed in at about a pound-and-a-half and Dr. Sheila said "She's a keeper."

Last night (well, I guess it's still night, technically) April spent her second night with us in the house. It was the first night that she discovered that we sleep in a bed. So of course, she joined us. She actually made it through most of the night without bother. That is, until about 2:00 AM this morning, when April discovered my hair was a lot of fun to wrestle around with. That kind of brought my snoozing to an end.

They're Fun To Snuggle With Too

The last time Dianna and I had a kitten was about thirty-six years ago, when our first cat, Hickory, had kittens while we were house-sitting for a Coast Guard shipmate of mine in Seattle. She had two kittens, Charlotte and Jessica.

Did I mention the reason we were house-sitting was because our household goods had already been picked up and were on their way to Cleveland, Ohio? At the time, I was waiting to get detached from the ship so we could move. What fun. Well, since she only had the two, we couldn't very well get rid of them in a strange neighborhood. We took them with us to Cleveland and back to Washington State two years later. They lived with us for about fifteen or sixteen years.

We're hoping for as satisfying a relationship with April. It's off to a good start.