Laser Cats

This is Seamus, pronounced shay-mus. We adopted this eight month old tabby last Saturday from the local humane society. We were looking at all the cats and they were all laying around and sleeping like cats tend to do, but this guy saw us coming and knew he had to turn up the charm or he was going to be stuck in that little cage. The cage had a glass door and he was rubbing up against it and you could hear him purring. The worker at the humane society opened the door for us and he and Vanessa clicked. I was happy too because I've always wanted an orange tabby kitten and I was afraid that Vanessa would want a long haired cat so this worked out for both of us. For the past few months I've been telling Vanessa that I wanted to name our next cat General Beauregard and I think Vanessa was actually convinced but when I saw this guy, the name didn't fit. Because of the orange color I thought an Irish name would work and I've always liked the name Seamus, so I pitched it to Vanessa and got the approval. Because last Monday was a holiday, we couldn't get Seamus until Tuesday. They had to neuter and vaccinate and install the microchip. Vanessa went to the humane society after work to pick him up and on the way home, noticed the paperwork said he had tested positive for either feline leukemia of feline aids. Either of which is highly contagious and drastically shortens the cats life. As soon as she got home we put Seamus in the guest room and contacted the humane society. A cat who tests positive for feline leukemia is generally put down and a cat testing positive for feline aids requires a series of medications and the people adopting the cat have to fill out special forms to make sure they know what they are getting in to. We didn't have to fill out any special forms and Seamus was alive so we were hoping it was a mistake, especially since we had already formed a connection with him. Vanessa finally got a hold of someone at the humane society and they said that it was probably a clerical error but they would have to check the test results and would get back with us the next day. Meanwhile, we were worried about Cole catching something so Vanessa made an appointment with the vet for first thing in the morning to get Seamus tested and get Cole vaccinated. He was vaccinated as a kitten, but that was ten years ago and we just thought, better safe than sorry. So I slept in the guest room with Seamus to make sure he had some company. Seamus tested negative for both conditions and the SPCA called us to confirm it was a clerical error and sent us a new copy of the paperwork with the error corrected.

Now the real test. How was Cole going to react to his new housemate. The first night was miserable. Cole slept on the bed with us and every time Seamus tried to come in the room I was awaken to growling and hissing. After a few day though, they are actually beginning to sniff each other and I think it won't be long before they are playing together. It's been a while since Cole had another cat around and he's never been the dominant one, so it's really interesting to see how he acts. Animals in nature are just amazing. They know their place. Cole knows he's senior cat and Seamus reacts accordingly. All in all, he's a great kitten and I'm really happy we got him. It's been so long since I've lived with a kitten. I've forgotten how much energy they have. It's so much fun.

Sorry it's been so long since I last posted. It seems that everyone is too busy with facebook to blog anymore. I miss the constant updates. I guess I'm actually going to have to call some of you sometime. School started this week. I feel like the semester just ended. I'm working on my next post. I think it will be my Oscar predictions tied in with my best of 2008. See you then.