A Year with a Kitten

I didn’t even know she existed this time last year. But eight weeks after this date, I adopted a kitten.

It’s the first time I’ve had a kitten in a loooooooooooooooong time. The last time was Swizzle, back when I was 8 or 9? We adopted him from a friend of my dad’s. I remember going to pick him out. I don’t remember much about him growing up, since I was young too. But as an adult, he was a cat with a lot of personality!

All of the other pets I’ve had since then have been adult adoptees. My family and/or I were lucky to know a birthday at all. Willow’s was December 5, 2003. She actually had papers, though I think I lost them soon after I adopted her. Her’s is the only one I think I ever knew. Other pets were adopted from the street (Rusty and others) or from a pet adoption fair (Pete).

Having a kitten around has been an experience. The first few weeks she slept in the bathroom so I could sleep. She didn’t seem to mind.

At first, she couldn’t even jump up onto the couch or the ottoman she was so small. It’s been cool watching her grow and seeing her be able to do those things. Not so fun was seeing her test her abilities where she shouldn’t and breaking things (poor Shiva).

I picked her up when she came out of surgery for her spay. I cried. It was terrible seeing her try so hard to do normal cat things while the anesthetic wore off. She careened slowly around the house like a drunken sailor. (I may have done something similar when I had my wisdom teeth pulled.) And she hated that damn cone at first. Fortunately she did get used to it, and I was able to keep it on her for the 14 days while she healed.

I (mostly) trained her to scratch on her scratching pad. I struggled with whether I would get her declawed, but decided I see how she did with the claws. My newish towels are pretty trashed, but usable. Mostly she sticks to the scratch pad. It seems the claws are staying.

She’s much more energetic than Rusty, who’s about 13 years old now. Rusty has always been more laid back. Bubo still goes into the playful mode about 75% of the time she is awake. Rusty will only play if something is dangling right in front of her. Though Bubo gets her to play sometimes too. And she grooms Bubo sometimes.

Throughout her kittenhood, I fed Bubo separately because a friend warned that kitten food could cause blockages in older cats. Now that Bubo is on regular cat food, she still insists on being fed separately. And now I’m letting Rusty eat out of that bowl too, instead of hiding it away (it’s the same food). I think they both think they are getting away with something.

Bubo still has the owlish tufts on her ears for which she is named (Bubo is a species of owl). I’m glad they stayed.

She’s a tortoiseshell through and through, though different than Rusty. Rusty’s fur is more grays and beige. Bubo is black and tan.

After Willow died I was planning on it being just me and Rusty for awhile. Willow took a lot of taking care of, and I think we both could use a break. But when my friend sent the Facebook call out for free kittens, my heart said yes even when my mouth said: “let me think about it.” I’m glad I went with my heart. 

 

Happy birthday, little one. Well, maybe not so little: 9.2 lbs!! She gained 7.2 lbs on my watch!