Kitty Weekend

Friday afternoon I went to the Animal Services place to get the cat trap. I was a little overeager and had the trap set up way too early. As you can see the sun is still out and the kitty never came before sundown. I put that little sheet of cardboard in there so it would feel more natural to walk across. The gist of the thing is, when the animal puts its weight down on the part under the food, the door slams shut. Mr. Frowny, I mean the man at the Animal Services place told me to set it very "hair trigger" if the cat was too small. And I thought I did, but I did not, as you can see in my little video clip. (Which is my very first video on my new digital camera.)

So he sat there and ate and ate and nothing happened. I was kinda freaking out. I didn't want to scare him away to reset the trap and I didn't know how long until he'd be hungry again. He stopped eating and began licking his paws, so I stepped up to the door and he ran away. I went back out to reset the trap at a lighter setting. I set it so close to the edge I was afraid it would trigger if it thundered. We went into the smoking room for a cigarette and I was lamenting that I hadn't set the trap right the first time and My Sweetie said, "I bet he's out there right now." Well, HE WAS! So I missed the whole thing.

Anyway, now he was going crazy berserk in there (and at this point I became a little afraid that maybe he WAS feral), so we picked up the trap and took it to the bathroom. The kitty finally settled down in the cage, so I went out to the garage for supplies: a little litter pan, and a little box with a towel for a comfy cubby hole. When I got back, the cage was empty and My Sweetie was just sitting there. I said, "What the hell?" He said, "He's back behind the toilet." So I got the food and water out of the cage, took the cage out, and set up the litter pan and cubby box. Then I just reached back behind the toilet and picked him up by the scruff. He was very docile then so I knew he wasn't feral. I took this picture so you could see how small he is:

The kitty spent most of its time in the box but would come to me sometimes and eventually became very friendly and loving. All this time I was still calling him a her and calling "her" Elaine. Then I took a look and realized My Sweetie was right - it was a boy. I started calling him partner for a while but somehow started calling him Barney, although his Native American name would be "Walks With One Grey Toe." He has four white mittens like my cat Lilly, but has one grey toe on his back right paw. Anyway, what his name was didn't really matter Friday night because we were going to take him to the Humane Society on Saturday. I stayed with him until 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning and finally went to bed. When I got up around noon, My Sweetie had spent a lot of time with him and saw how sweet he was and was being awful quiet when I mentioned things like "what time the Humane Society closed" and "which exit we should take off of 30."

He didn't come right out and say anything, but I began to suspect his heart wasn't into throwing him out into the world to take his chances on a possible adoption. We were both saying things like, "If we didn't already have three cats..." and I even made the joke, "Why don't we just take Rufus to the Humane Society?" (Rufus can really be an asshat sometimes.) Usually when we have plans to go somewhere on a Saturday My Sweetie has to keep on me to get ready because my social phobia has turned me into the master dawdler, but he was saying nothing at all. That's when I knew. Finally I came in here (he was on the computer) and said, "Well, instead of going to the Humane Society, we can just got to Petco and buy an extra litter box and some kitten food." And that was that. Barney became our cat. We let him out of the bathroom to roam around after we put the other cats in their room and he really liked the library:

After we went to Petco Saturday, I made him a nice little section in here. It's a very large room with a french door and two french windows looking into the living room. It's a great set up because the cats can study each other through the glass. We have let them meet, but just for short periods. Today Barney hung out in the living room all afternoon with us while we watched Little Miss Sunshine. He jumped into this plant and I couldn't believe I got this picture in time. I need to start wearing the camera around my neck!

So now I'm that much closer to being "Crazy Cat Lady." I told My Sweetie, "We are cat collectors!" But this is the last one.

No, really.