Ninja Life: Is This Motherhood?
by Yume | February 28th, 2011
I think most people who follow me on the various social networking sites already know; on February 19th, Alcuin and I attended the ACATemy Awards, hosted by Best Friends Animal Society, and came home with our little grey addition, Mycroft.
image via Best Friends Facebook
The red rope & red carpet were rolled out in front of the Palomar hotel in West Los Angeles for this event. How cute is this set up? There were over 200 different cats from various Southern California Animal Shelters up for adoption that day.
From what I also heard afterwards, a great majority of the cats were adopted save a few! So if you’re in Southern California and looking for a nice cat, please check the Best Friends Facebook!
The set up was actually really organized, each cat had an info card with celebrity based pun names. Funny ones we saw were “Catrick Swayze”, and “Leighton Siameester”. I still laugh, cheesy but effective. There was a lot of love and creativity in this event!
Thats right. CAT OSCAR! :O
You may recall for my 29th birthday, Alcuin offered to help pay for the adoption and medical related fees for the adoption of a cat. I had been desirous of one for some time. Due to massive work & events, moving to a new apartment, going to London, and Peeker needing to adjust to changes, we held off until this month.
Alcuin with Mycroft at the Acatemy Awards, while I was filling out the paperwork, via Bestfriends.
The Acatemy Awards was the first of six places we had planned on visiting, and I was having such a horrid week that I wasn’t feeling positive I would find ANY cat with whom I could connect. Oh how naive I was…
look at this little face!
I actually didn’t have a specific breed in mind, or much of a desired look. I was interested in grey cats, but not set on the idea. When we saw Mycroft, he was being really frisky in a cage with his other 4 siblings. He caught my eye immediately, but I tried to keep moving as to give all the cats a chance.
how could I have doubted that he was the one?
But with in 5 minutes of moving on, I knew I had to go back and hold him. Alcuin had told me of his magical meeting with Peeker 12 1/2 years ago; I wanted, no needed, that experience too. It definitely happened.
The moment Mycroft was in my hands he settled down and put his chin on my arm to rest. Then started purring loudly and looked up at me with a satisfied face. I’ll never forget that moment or the feeling. I can only equate it to the first time Peeker fell asleep in my arms:
Peeker & I four years ago in 2007
The joy! The rapture! The heart melting purr of a happy kitty!
Mycroft had found his new family. I think the volunteers were excited as we were one of the first adoptions that morning, but hardly as excited as Alcuin and I were.
After we officially adopted Mycroft, we were told that we had to collect our Red-Carpet goodies and get our photo taken.
As the event was sponsored by Petco, various animal groups, vets, and supply retailers, Mycroft got a HUGE parting gift. A huge big goodie bag filled with a box of liter, dry kitten food, wet kitten food, a temporary carrier, and toys!
We also got a ‘scratch lounge’ which is Mycroft’s Peace-Offering gift to Peeker, and a kitten castle. The A-list treatment.
And, we got our own Cat-Oscar from the event. How amazing is that?
Mycroft, in personality, is exactly what I wanted. He loves to be picked up, held, cuddled, and he has the right amount of sass and frisky behavior. You might have already guessed, but these are also Peeker’s great qualities. Peeker is a bit more empathic than Mycroft, but Mycroft is a lot sharper than Peeker.
Of course, the two things that came up as issues were:
1. How long would it take for Peeker to take to Mycroft due to his old age?
2. Would Peeker get sick due to the introduction of a new cat?
this is what you get with two needy cats who decide to sit on you at once.
The answer to the first, Peeker hissed and asserted his dominance the moment he met Mycroft. Though generally a passive and non-confrontational cat, Peeker definitely did not like having “his” space filled with a foreigner. Mycroft on the other hand, wanted to bask in the glory of Peeker from the get-go.
“Peeker, please acknowledge me!”
Mycroft was quick to let Peeker know, he was ready to cower in submission. But he was also persistent. He wanted to be with Peeker, follow him into rooms, sit with him in the same space. After the course of splitting them up at night for 2 nights, Peeker began to allow Mycroft near him.
Now, Peeker “allows” Mycroft to be in his presence. They both sleep in the bed, taking up so much space that Alcuin and I almost have no space (this is love).
At the end of his first week home, Mycroft seems to have adjusted extremely well to his new life as Duke of Rochester Manor.
Mycroft is 9Weeks Old, the video.
He’s definitely a “mama’s boy”.
As for the second part, we’ve been closely monitoring Peeker. During the week Mycroft was sneezing so much, we concluded he had some sort of cold. Peeker seemed fine. Mycroft seemed okay by Thursday night, but early this evening Peeker had a rather sudden crash in his energy.
Peeker, though generally lazy, was rather sluggish and didn’t desire water or food. Normally, even when he’s a bit sleepy, if I shake his treats box, he runs up to me immediately (100% I’ve never seen him NOT react that way in all my four years with him). This time, he just sort of looked at me and went back to laying down. Red flag!!!!
We think he’s getting dehydrated, and he’s refusing to drink water to make it worse. But since I think we caught it right away, he’ll be on his way to a visit with the vet tomorrow if not Tuesday! Mycroft was already schedule to go in on Tuesday.
So keeping watch on Peeker for now, seems minor at the moment. I’m glad that at least our babies are getting along well, and I hope that Peeker recovers very very quickly after seeing the vet! He’s got a lot of things to teach Mycroft!
