Devil in My Angel

So yeah, the new cat Angel's been at home with me for about a month now. He is a great cat, very loving. Loving to chase NooNoo that is. Not that she isn't an instigator or anything. Plus, he is young and full of energy and hated that I went back to work, so when I get home I have to play play play with him. If I stop before he's ready, he nips at my ankles!!!! Not meanly, just letting me know he still wants to play. Naturally I have been trying to teach him that this is not behavior that we will tolerate in this house mister. How has that been going?

Well let me tell you.

With poor Patches, my cat that passed away in November, literally, in a conversational tone of voice, you could say, "No Patches" and she would stop whatever she was doing or about to do!!! NooNoo of course is too slick to get caught doing anything. She's like a ghost or ninja. You have a feeling she was just there but there's nothing but a puff of smoke and a faint meow fading into the breeze.

With Angel though....it sounds more like this:

No Angel, I said NO, I SAID NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's not that I like running around my house with squirt bottles screaming like a banshee out of old Irish legends, it's just that that seems to be what he understands. I'm thinking I should get one of the 911 alert things and wear it around my neck because one of these days I'm either going over the balcony or down the stairs. I have a habit of going down the stairs, and that's not in the normal upright human way... I've actually had to throw out pairs of socks because it seemed that they caused the bottom of my feet to equal the slipperness of freshly waxed hotel lobby floors when walked on with high heels...

So tell me the truth.....is it because he's a boy cat? I'm thinking that's pretty much the reason. So this proves it is in fact genetic, all that behavior, the not listening, the defiant bad behavior, the abject apologies and purring afterwards that just lead to more not listening as if nothing ever happened because nothing is ever actually remembered.

Tell me again why I didn't pick out an older cat????

Oh yeah, cause look at him, isn't he so sweet? :-)

Christmas Angel

So the other day I was working from home and my cat (NooNoo) just wasn't herself. Ever since Patches has been gone NooNoo hasn't been quite right. She talks to me a lot (she must have a little bit of Siamese in here) and has no one to chase and be chased by.

At the spur of the moment, I headed on down to the Chester County SPCA. Rescue places have a lot of animals right now, due to foreclosures and people downsizing...there were lots of cats and as I walked in to where they keep all the cats I just wanted to cry, I felt so bad for all of them in their cages. But I steeled myself up and decided to pay attention to who was interested in me. Right away there were two stand-outs. Two males - one was white and tan, named Spook, and one was black and white, named Angel. And both are BIG cats. At least compared to what I was used to, especially with my little NooNoo around the house, all 6 pounds of her.

Spook rubbed against the cage bars and meowed and meowed at me, Angel rolled over on his back and looked up at me. My heart melted!

So I met with each of them in the little room and although both were sweet as pie, it seemed like Angel would be easier to adapt to new situations.

Ta-dah, I have a new cat!

Right now he is quarantined to my office, which has not pleased NooNoo very much. Once she realized I had actually placed a CAT in the room, she likes to sit there and growl at the door. Her growls remind me a little of Marge Simpson when she goes: Hmhmhmmmmmm in response to something dumb somebody says.

Despite being 6 pounds and not having any front claws, NooNoo takes no crap from nobody. I know who is going to be in charge once she and Angel meet. But I love her dearly. She gives me those sweet little silent meows....

Angel is currently 12.4 pounds. Apparently he gained some weight while at the SPCA (he was there since late September, poor thing). We're going to try and lose about 2 pounds, we'll see. We have a free wellness check at the vet tomorrow afternoon, after that, he and NooNoo can meet face-to-face.

He is just a total little sweetheart, he's adjusted very well to the office (I always laugh when I see cats in new environments, that low cat-walk thing they do around the perimeter). I have about 8 scratching posts in the room to encourage him to use those rather than my chair and ottoman, but the ottoman is a draw. He doesn't seem to understand "No!". He just kind of lays there and looks at me like, huh? I just drag him across the floor away from the ottoman towards the scratching thingy and then he thinks I'm petting him. At the moment, he LOVES to eat, I guess there isn't much else to do when you're in a cage, so that is his big thing, but I think once he has the run of the house and other distractions, he'll be okay. I put a t-shirt of mine in the room and he likes to lay on it, so I think we've bonded nicely. I hope that all goes well with the vet!!

Here's my first picture of my new little boy. As you can see, he's on the crappy office chair that Patches loved and I could never get rid of because of how much she loved it.


What's the first thing he found and jumped on? That crappy office chair. So for now, my elbow and arm will continue to suffer. I guess I'll put it in the loft eventually....