Shadow says, "You did WHAT????"

Petra called me from the Animal Hospital. Petra is evil made manifest as a charming, elfin-faced immigrant from the Czech Republic. She's a law unto herself and she will not be denied. An excellent vet tech, she also serves in a semi-official capacity as a one-woman animal adoption agency.

She had a very sad story to tell me. It's the story of a cat who had lived all his life in a Manhattan apartment with his brother. Their owner died about eight months ago and this 18 lb, eight year old boy had nowhere to go. (His brother was adopted very quickly. What kind of selfish git would adopt one brother and not the other?) Anyway, 'Pasha' has been living in a cage in the vet's Manhattan office all this time and has started to go bonkers. Petra can't stand this. Aware that my cat population was recently reduced by one, she's called upon me to bring him home. I said yes.

But only conditionally! Shadow is a fine fellow and has always been good to the kittens and the females. But he's never been forced to share lodgings with an adult male before. (Pasha is neutered. I hope that helps!) I told Petra that if, after a reasonable breaking-in period, Shadow is unhappy about Pasha's presence, then Pasha will have to go. She said that she understood completely and that she was confident that I'd find a way to make everything work out. Fiend! I pick him up tomorrow at 3:00pm. And I haven't told Jose yet. Oy. Jose is Shadow's champion and makes no bones about preferring him to all other pets. He even prefers him over the dogs he had as a boy, and he LOVED those dogs. Every couple of days, he'll be petting Shadow and he'll say, "You know, this cat may be the best pet I ever had."

But I feel sorry for the bonkers cat. (If he stays, he's getting a new name!) I have to give it a try. 18 lbs! That's even bigger than Shadow, though not by much. Maybe he'll drop a few lbs when he's here. I only serve dry food, except when tuna salad is being made. The rule for tuna salad is that everyone gets some tuna.

And if he's at all playful, Duko will manage his exercise program. Man, she's big now too. She's closer to Shadow in size than she is to Seven, and Seven is only one month younger than the Dukester. Seven's no slouch in the zooming-around-like-a-loony department either. Gosh, I hope this works.

You know, when I started blogging here, I told myself that I would never post an entry about cats. That I would mention them only in passing. That I would avoid the middle-aged, childless, frumpy cliche of being a cat fanatic. But it's important to me that they have a good life and that they know someone's is looking out for them and loving them. Why should their feelings and welfare be any less important than Cherry Bomb's or Cancer Friend's?

I put a pair of chopsticks in BioCup One so the snails would have something to play on. Crazy, huh? They like the chopsticks, though. Even Augie likes the chopsticks.

I will tell none of this to Dr. Feel-Good-Enough. I won't have to. Cherry Bomb will.

Tia Hermana LOCA!!!