Relative Something

We have doubled the occupancy of our new home! Yesterday, with the loving guidance of our daughter, Elysa, we adopted two wonderful kitties from her neighborhood feline rescue organization.

We brought home a male, and a female, both short hairs. The male is a gray tabby, and the female is a tortoise. They are each around 1-year old and had names that sounded like someone at a shelter had to come up with something on the spot. We have renamed them.

I wrote the following yesterday afternoon, shortly after we settled in at home:

The male, who, at the time of this writing, is safely ensconced beneath our bed, under the headboard, as far back against the wall as he could get, was incredibly alert, athletic, and playful at the center. He showed impressive intelligence in anticipating the angle where a rubber ball would bounce off a wall to emerge from beneath a cage.

He is our mouser (we’re hoping), and that is how we selected a name for him. Based on Google Translate‘s Portuguese pronunciation for ‘mouser,’ which sounded a bit like, “mozier” to us, we have selected a customized spelling and are calling him: Mozyr. It could easily morph to ‘Mozes,’ for short.

The female, who is currently exploring the closet, has already scoped out the entire bedroom, and without hesitation, wants to leave this room and keep up the adventure down the hallway. She has claimed both Cyndie and me as her own, kneading our bellies, lying between us to feign a nap, then getting up in reaction to different sounds, immediately responding to our every move, checking to see what we are up to, and investigating whatever we are doing.

She is petite, and the name we have chosen for her is: Pequenita. It came from Cyndie’s memory of spanish for ‘little small one,’ and according to Google Translate (from spanish to english) means: “Wee.” At the shelter, ‘Nita appeared to bond with Cyndie almost instantly.

Both cats rode without fuss, in their individual carriers on the back seat of my car. It was about a 45-minute trip home, during which I needed to make a stop for gas. They both behaved as if this trip were no big deal.

We brought them into our bedroom, where we will have them spend whatever time necessary to display they are feeling comfortable, by eating, drinking, and using the litter box. After they have each demonstrated a level of contentment, we will open up the rest of the house to them.

Both cats exited their carriers very tentatively. Moz did move around the edges a little bit, but then settled deep under the bed and has decided to mostly stay put ever since. Pequenita has been up and down on every possible perch and already appears as comfortable as can be. She has eaten her food, drinks her water, and has been in the litter box.

We’ve decided to have her stay in the room for now, to help Mozyr get his confidence up, even though she seems ready to explore further.

They didn’t arrive at the shelter together, but we found them housed in a room full of other cats, and both seem familiar and comfortable with each other. They appear to be close in age. I am expecting them to do very well together. It seems we won’t be needing to manage the significant animosity of hissing and flying fur, anyway.

We have noted that Mozyr’s behavior, thus far, has matched exactly how the shelter adoption coordinator predicted he would act (which seemed a surprise, based on his robust performance, playing with everything and everyone at the time). He is shy and looks to need a fair amount of time in one room before really letting his guard down.

I’m suspecting that some of Pequenita’s activity is actually a cover up for some of her anxiety. She keeps coming up to me, as if to snuggle, but never really takes the weight off her feet, always at the ready to bolt, if need be.

We think this adoption is off to an excellent start.

Pequenita and Mozyr are our first animals added to the farm!