Cat Chronicles - Aftermath

Well it's been three weeks, more or less, since Pearl shuffled off this mortal coil, gone to meet her maker, rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisible.  And as I predicted, there has been a seismic shift in the feline dynamic of the house.

For starters, I have a new best kitty buddy. Everybody, this is Rusty:

The green cloth is my shirt; he's sitting on my right leg

Rusty, a sort of Creamsicle Persian, never - and I mean never - sat on my lap before. But now that Pearl is gone, I guess he feels free to do what he wanted to.  And within a week of her being gone, Rusty latched on to me and as yet hasn't let go. He follows me into the bathroom. He climbs onto the bed when I sleep.  And he sits on me or near me when I'm down here on the couch. In short, he is my shadow.

He doesn't like being held, though; that's a big difference between him and Pearl.  And he looks like a big froo-froo ball of fur but underneath that fur is a big, strong he-cat that won't be anywhere he doesn't want to be.  I often thought that all he had to do was kick Pearl's ass one time and life would get a lot easier for him; thus always to bullies, to paraphrase John Wilkes Booth. But Rusty's too mellow to use his powers for evil, as it were.

When he and Pearl were the new cats in the house, we still had Sarsaparilla and Bailey, who taken together we referred to as 'the rats.'  Rusty formed an instant friendship with Sarsaparilla, but she was really old and couldn't play like he wanted to.  I remember once he reared up and just pancaked her, just gave her an open-field tackle, trying to engage her in play.  Sarsaparilla was dazed for ten solid seconds, then walked away a little unsteadily.  Rusty got the hint and never played rough with her again, for the couple of months or so that she was still with us.  He's reasonably friendly with Maya, who in addition to being our newest cat is also Wolfie's daughter (hey Wolf! Show yourself! You're freaking me out with your silence!), though not best buds like I'd have liked.  But at least there's nobody darting out of the way when a bully like Pearl comes stomping around upstairs looking to cause mischief.

So, as regards the felinity of the house, things are good, with ever the prospect of things getting better.  Sure, I miss Pearl, sometimes a lot - you know that unconditional love thing, it's so rare and when it happens it's really cool - but Rusty is doing what he can to fill the gap, and just the fact that he wants to makes me happy.

Well that's the cat update.  And for the guys (and selected girls), here's another picture of a pussy.

Make a Wish, indeed...