Oh, my team, there is a reason and that right good for why I cancelled all my appointments yesterday and peered out of my windows like Mrs. straight up Danvers. A wee and eensy cat, so little its precise position is governed by the quantum uncertainty principle, wandered onto my back deck the morning last and started chirruping at me like some sort of chirruping machine. Friends! What am I to do? He is so wee!
How could he possibly earn a living? This cat is still in short pants, in cat terms. He somehow managed to make friends with my Current Cat, who is not in the habit of making friends with other beasts, so I called and cancelled my car repair appointment because I had to watch them through the window for a few hours.
What am I to do? How can a cat so small he cannot be measured by modern science be allowed to wander from my yard without being looked after? I fear for his safety, as there are foxes and wizards who change boys into donkeys that would lure him to Pleasure Island and make him go to work for J. Worthington Foulfellow. He’s got to be poked at by a veterinarian, and possibly held a great deal by myself, right?
OH AND WHATLY HO-INGTON, HERE’S THE LITTLE SIR LEAPING FROM A BUSHEL OF MORNING GLORIES.
Help me lure this kitten into my safe and kindly clutches, friends! He scamples offway when I so much as poke my head out the door. Give me your wisdom!
Tags: animals, catching things, things that happen in my yard, this little kitten is so eensy
Put a thing of food in something he can jump down into, but not climb out of. Like a slippery bucket?
Hahahahaha “like a slippery bucket.” That’s a perfect life metaphor, thank you.
And so began the thread about how to trap a wild kitten.
A slippery bucket is going to be my answer to any and all questions today.
WHY DO WEE LITTLE KITTENS NEVER WANDER THEIR WAY INTO MY…apartment complex near the freeway, okay, that makes sense.
I’m like this, except replace ‘highway’ with ‘scrubland full of coyotes.’
I personally would be delighted if a wee kitten were to find its way, erm, through the university car park out the back (I think that’s the reason why we don’t see the neighbour’s friendly long-haired tuxedo any more), into the back “common area” that is mostly gravel with some municipal shrubbery, through the bolted back door, up two flights of stairs, and into my flat. But then our cat would disembowel it. She does not like other cats. She is a total darling and all humans who meet her instantly fall under her spell, but she believes that all other cats should die. We tried to introduce her to a kitten we were looking after briefly, the sweetest tiniest purriest little thing who will nap on your neck and makes a noise like a tribble before she pounces, and, well, my partner ended up in the minor injuries unit.
You can borrow humane traps from many animal rescues. If you want to try socializing him.
“Socializing kittens” is an extremely clever scam that we cat people have managed to convince the animal rescues is necessary.
“Hello yes I need to take these kittens into my house and pet them a lot so that they will be good pets I will return them when they are less small.”
Keep placing food closer and closer to your door, and then if at all possible, leave the door open. That’s my method, anyway. The last cat I had, I caught by leaving the food just inside the doorway (after like a five days of moving houseward), and finally he came in and slept on my feet.
Of course, if you’re leery of stray wizards finding their way inside, this might not work.
Be wary about leaving the door open though. The internet is full of delightful photos of cats who have wandered into homes they do not belong in. Like so: http://tiserin.tumblr.com/post/39644620719/asamis…
I don’t see the problem
WHY DO THEY LOVE THE SINK SO MUCH?
My mother accomplished a similar feat with long sittings outside in a stillular position and strategic tactical deployment of shreds of finely sliced ham, tossed in a breadcrumb wise to slowly lure the furbeast to pettable reach, where yet more snarflings of ham awaited. Repeated doses over two days effectively turned the trick.
snarflings
*stillular position*
WHATLY HO-INGTON
Mallory ilu
I know nothing about kitten catching, but that tiny cat person is eensy and delightful! Good luck!
I once actually had to do the math to determine how fast a kitten (or several kittens, thousands, really) would have to move to have a big enough wavelength for the double slit experiment to work. Thanks for reminding me of that.
A doomed endevour. Kittens would never all move in the same direction reliably enough.
Well neither do photons
It is still more fun watching the kittens try, though, isn’t it?
Photons are actually cats, you heard it here first.
I have two degrees in optics and I can verify this 100%.
Best illustration for a text book ever- photons as kittens.
I want to get a cat and name it Schroedinger. I know that’s not exactly right, but . . .
Had a friend who did this! Expect many have.
I had one of those in my garage! A small dish of tuna and some very careful creeping netted me… a big scratch on my arm and no small catness. So maybe something different than that?
Put something appealingly stinky (cat treats, sardines, etc.) in a humane trap. Good luck!
I’ve heard that cats supposedly love the smell of Chick Fil A. Not just any fried chicken, but specifically Chick Fil A chicken. I dunno…it’s probably BS, but I kinda love it.
I suspect that Mallory would rather forgo even the eensy kitten than give money to Chick Fil A.
I’m a die-hard ally, but I would buy some Chic Fil A to trap a kitten. And then give some money to a good cause.
YOU SUSPECT WRONG, I LOVE CHICK FIL A and every time I go in there I pretend they’re not anti-gay and then I eat delicious chicken
Neither cats nor Mallories give a fuck about chicken homophobia, whereas my hetero guilt keeps me from their delightful sammiches.
I will sit over here being a smug queer vegetarian jealous of your proximity to the eensy kitten.
My cat loves Chik Fil A – he climbs right up in my lap and sticks his little nose right in my face while I’m trying to chow down on my spicy chicken sandwich.
Put a box outside with a blanket that smells of you. Getting used to your smell is the first step.
Put food outside, treats etc, getting ever closer to your door and leave your door open as much as possible. Try to give the impression that this is a safe place for a little stray kitten to hang out.
If necessary, a local rescue will probably help you with a cat trap.
Socialisation of a stray (once you’ve caught it) may be a little tricky, but basically involves handling and grooming it as much as possible to get it used to human contact.
It’s easier to socialize them if you start while they’re still in short pants. Cats that are not as wee as this little sir would be more of a challenge.
I recommend becoming more and more consumed by the existence of this tiny beast, until he becomes your white whale, and you, his demented Ahab. With my last breath, I pounce at thee; from Hell’s heart, I purr at thee.
This sounds remarkably like my relationship with my mother’s cat.
if you do manage to obtain this tiny kitten molecule you should 100% name it “scamples offway”
“scamp” for short.
progressively tastier food in a line towards your open door. dress as a cat yourself. lay there, purring. feign disinterest.
eventually… maybe after weeks, the kitten will trust you, and then you will have a friend for life.
Feigned disinterest is absolutely key. Cats love anything that isn’t interested.
I find that the trick is to sit casually somewhere near the prospective cat-friend, with my hand hanging ever-so-accidentally down at the side of my chair. My fingers just happen to wiggle themselves about occasionally, without any intentions, and cats are unable to resist the mystery of this hand attached to a completely disinterested human.
Even better if you have butter on your fingers. Cats cannot resist butter.
(This is also a good trick for making amends with a cat you have accidentally slighted, who has made it clear that he will never forgive your trespasses against him. Eventually he will have to lick your fingers, in spite of himself, and then you’ll pet him, and then all sins will be forgotten.)
Direct eye contact is bad, which is why cats always go to the one person in the room who doesn’t like cats. Everybody who does like them is making big eyes at them, because that’s what we do to show we are friendly. Put out some food in a bowl, sit near but not right next to it, and, if the wee one approaches, glance at him with half-lidded eyes, and then away. Repeat ad nauseum ad infinitum. That way you are telling him you are not a threat, and that you don’t see him as a threat. This is how I (SLOWLY) socialized my feral 12-week old siamese. It also helped that I had another cat whom she could watch coming up to me for attention, like she saw the other cat and went “oh, hey, that looks kind of nice!” So maybe have your current cat out with you?
Could not agree more! In my cat hating days I never understood why cats liked me, then I came across this wisdom just before moving in with my current roommate and her very skittish cat. The roommates thought it was some kind of cat whispering, but really cats only love those who do not love them back…. and they think that looking at someone directly means you’re planning on eating them, which gets kind of creepy when a cat stares at you.
This! Cat body language is so interesting. Also, if the cat does wander up to you, you can close your eyes slowly and open them again to show that you don’t feel threatened, which is what cats do when they trust someone.
I learned this from the cat guy on TV with the crazy beard!
Is this true for dogs too? Because I hate both cats and dogs (ok, hate is maybe a strong term, I tolerate cats and cannot fathom dogs, they’re way too needy and love me love me and goofy and smelly and why God), I display no interest in either and both kinds will cotton up to me like I’m their long lost bestest friend ever.
Nope– most dogs try their luck with pretty much everyone.
The best thing you can do, if you don’t want a dog to best-friend at you, is to not smell like a person who pets dogs, which I’d guess is a thing you’re probably already doing. (Or you can send them my way and I’ll distract them.)
I am ambivalent to the existence of cats and would be willing to sit ambivalently on Mallory’s deck, like the Regina George of the cat world, until I can lure the teeny kitten shaped eukaryotic cell into my clutches. All it will cost her is cab fare from Australia and a pack of that fake orange American cheese.
I admit, I woke up this morning and one of my first thoughts was “I wonder if Mallory’s made progress with Cat-Little?”
Me too! I really hope there’s a Toastie in her area who can go help her with this.
No but what are you gonna name him
I vote for Sir Whatly Ho-ington
Archibald Fotherington-Thomas.
Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps!
-Shortpants.
My friend has named her cat Pouncival.
I refer to him as Sir Pouncival Pouncington the Third, Lord of Pouncerby Hall.
The honor and prestige of his station demands no less.
Do not catch the kitten. Soon it will grow up and you will write a post about how this scoundrel stole its way into your yard, wearing the guise of a tiny adorable kitten, but time shed its glamor and it ended up being a cat just like any other cat.
(I say this fully realizing you are probably camped on your porch right now with a butterfly net and a pair of binoculars)
Please keep tweeting updates about this, I want to see some close-up pics of kitten cuddles!!! Also, a humane trap would probably work, as several ppl have suggested, and then you can take him to the vet and then he is YOURS TO CUDDLE.
Hie thee to a grocer’s and purchase some deliciously stinky canned tuna fish, which is a proven catling attractant, and place small smidges of tuna and tuna juice strategically around the sunning porch. Maintain a soul-deep stillness and calm, despite the temptation to squeal and make high-pitched noises. Await the arrival of tiny catling and admire its tiny paws.
As some of the previous posters have suggested, slow and gentle luring into the house via food has worked for me (also a wee, black and white kitten — now a chunky and complacent 14 year old). I first put the food in a dish on the back step and progressed to leaving the back door open. The kitty eventually ambled in (despite the two previously resident cats).
Lie on the ground, face-down, and make plaintive mewing sounds. Then let him sniff you. You roll over slowly and show him how you’re no threat, and then *voila* your pockets produce some freeze-dried chicken or shrimp, and now you’re friends. This is how I met all my friends! I mean, cats.
Also, layer yourself in fleece and velour, cats seem to find those fabrics irresistible.
I think that humane trap is the most likely thing to work, but I would probably just sit out there and meditate with a can of cat food in my lap. I feel like I would either eventually reach nirvana or the kitten would be so entranced by my stillness and inner peace that she would just cozy up on my lap so I could grab her and throw her through my sliding glass door in a fury tornado of fuzz and claws and tiny pink tongue.
Like, seafood? I once tricked a most devilish alley cat, a cat with a missing eye and 3/4th the standard amount of ears that cats are generally equipped with, into friendship by offering a tin of something gross from the sea (kipper snacks? Idk I stole it from my roommate). They seem to like that.
I think you gotta get Christopher Walken to throw you out a window.
Perhaps Current Cat is already sowing the seeds of Tinycat’s future in-the-house-ishness. Time and an open door was enough for my last cat to self-domesticate.
Mallory, you are gradually becoming Al Swearengen. Also, there better be a part two to this.
I’d pay good money for a Deadwood sequel dedicated to Al Swearengen’s attempts to lure stray kittens into the Gem.
*emits a sustained, escalating-pitch squeal*
I second the ‘leave food closer and closer to the door’ recommendation. If he still scampers away from you even after coming inside repeatedly and eating food, then waiting near(ish) a bowl of food lying flat on the floor* for shy kittens to approach and eat usually works as a first step to lure them into feeling safe with you, though obviously it is a bit of a test of your commitment to this mission.
*Technique pioneered by my mother who has tamed several actual wild kittens in her life and was late for her second date with my father because, no kidding, she was rescuing a cat from a well. This was before mobile phones, my dad thought she had stood him up, I was nearly never born, I am 100% confident that she would do it again.
That’s an excellent reason to have nearly never been born.
But you would never know about it. 🙁
For distraction whilst we await future updates, may I share my second-favorite website: http://d.hatena.ne.jp/fubirai/
It’s just a guy taking pictures of cats. It’s so wonderful.
When you do catch the wee cat, I hope you name him Short Pants. It is only The Right thing to do.
Short Pants Catlittle!
You must demonstrate that Current Cat has found you to be a suitable human. Sit there and let Current Cat come get treats from you. Show that Current Cat may come and go freely, essentially using you as a human food and affection dispenser. This will demonstrate your suitability. My own cat-wooing strategies consist primarily of holding very still and showing the cat-stranger that when cats approach me they will be fed, not grabbed or scared. You must also remain very low to the ground, and very still, and then when you make eye contact with the kitten you must psychically communicate your benevolence. I cannot explain how to do this but I trust that you will know.
Later, a tiny kitten was chased around the neighborhood to the tune of “Yakety Sax.”
I vote for the Ford Prefect method. Time, patience and pheromone control.
It’s also possible that the tinycat is just scared because s/he is out in the big, big world all by themselves. If so, food and something that smells like you (and Current Cat, so towel, blanket, cat bed) left out on/near the deck might convince them they have found a safe haven. A live trap works too. I’ve used many different methods, but mainly, get the tinycat to associate food with your back deck and sooner or later, Tinycat will hang out close enough that you can pick them up.
My current extra cat was a calico living under my front porch. I did not feed her, but did not want a cat having kittens under my front porch, so debated about getting a live trap and doing all that. Since she was so ‘feral’ I negotiated a home in a barn (after appropriate vetting, including the spay, ha!) But, before I could get a trap set, one morning, when I went out on my porch, she was sitting *on* the porch, near enough for me to pick her up. I was wearing a leather motorcycle jacket, so I went for it and grabbed her. My purse and lunch went flying and she dug into the jacket, but could not get away (I’ve picked up many an angry cat–). I put her on my sideporch (which is enclosed and is used as quarantine for any extra cats that I have to deal with), went to work, and made her vet appointment.
She screamed and yelled and fought in the carrier and the vet techs all put on serious handler gear, but when we gingerly opened the carrier, she stepped out calmly and looked around. She growled, low and sad, the whole time she was examined, but she did not fight anymore.
She had to spend several days on the sideporch while the anti-parasite meds did their work, and the first night she huddled at the bottom of the sideporch stairs in fear; the second night she slept in the cat bed I gave her on the sideporch deck; the third night she was knocking on the door to come in.
After she was allowed in, it became clear that she was not at all feral. She had been dumped outside by someone and was terrified. Even now, several years later (she was not sent to the barn once I realized she did not like being outside), if you pick her up and go near the outside door, she will freeze and make that low growl. If she is hanging out and the door is opened, she will run and hide.
So, Tinycat may just take a little convincing that living with you and Current Cat is a grand plan. (I’ve had actual ferals calm down a lot once they are inside, but I don’t try to cuddle them right away–just let them do their thing and they watch the other cat(s) and figure out that humans aren’t so bad.) Good luck! Don’t give up on Tinycat!
sweetest story ever.
Put food out and pretend to be a tree. Do not make eye contact at first, then keep it brief and casual.
I’ll never forget tramping around in the snow looking for a tiny Siamese kitten. “Has anyone seen a white cat?” “Not in THIS snow,” a neighbor retorted.
(We found him, trapped under the house by a tiny snowdrift he thought was Everest. He was rescued and is now a big grown-up flame point.)
Put food out and pretend to be a tree. Do not make eye contact at first, then keep it brief and casual.
I see you’ve watched me on dates.
A humane trap and some delicious food is definitely the easiest way. It will be much easier to socialize the kitten once it is in your house. If it is truly hostile and freaked out, keep it in a large cage/kennel for a while that you can fit a litter box and hidey-box in. Spend time lying next to it reading or sleeping until the kitten acclimates. Then start going for touches and such. Go slow. Don’t let it out of the cage until it seems to have adjusted (might be a couple weeks). Don’t let it out of the room until it seems pretty chill and friendly with you.
Besides the excellent food suggestion…Even if the kitten runs away after you go out to the deck, try sitting out there quietly with a book or laptop. Being all big and noisy and human scares most shy cats off, but you can regain its trust and provoke curiosity by being quiet and still and not looking directly at it. Ever notice cats tend to go to the one person in the room who hates cats? Cats are the opposite of us and are drawn to negative human body language.
I am no cat expert myself.
However, my older brother, a rather imposing 6’3″ fellow with a voice that doesn’t rise above a low rumble, once rescued a runaway cat from beneath our deck his first summer back from college. The cat had been missing for a couple of weeks, and was a bit feral when it showed up in our yard. No one could get it to come out. So he went out into the yard and sat, for an hour or two, with a towel in his lap, lowly talking to the terrified kitten. And then it just.. came to him. Came right up to his lap. It freaked out again when he wrapped it in the towel, and scratched his arms up quite a bit, but it was captured, and we brought it inside the screened in porch until its owners claimed it. (I am super allergic to cats so we couldn’t bring it inside, but my brother spent the whole day outside with it.)
So may I suggest obtaining a gentle giant cat whisperer?
The Toast commentariat was essentially born for this moment (the one where Mallory needs kitten help, I mean), yes?
Add in a question only a librarian could answer and it would be like Toastie Nirvana.
I lured a stray cat in with tuna and 15 years later he’s still the sweetest cat in the world, but I think he was more used to people than your little one. Good luck with the luring and the socializing.
No one else has mentioned this yet, but two of the tiny kitten photos are upside down. Maybe it’s just my phone (iPhone 4 – using Safari).
ETA – looking at it from my MacBook Pro, all the photos are right side up. But I swear, on my phone, the first and last photos are upside down.)
Greatly disappointed that the tag “this little kitten is so eensy” does not lead to similar postings. *sigh*
“whatly ho-ington” is my new cat-phrase
Totally agree with decembrian’s suggestion of sitting quietly outside for many hours before you try trapping. The chirruping noises the kitten has made is really really good news because in my experience the more a kitten meows the more likely it will be successfully domesticated.
As for trapping I suggest the Wiley E. Coyote method.
Prepare the cat carrier by tying string to the inside of the door then threading that string through the carrier and out the air holes in the back. Put out a small amount of smelly food–tuna in oil is really good–in the back of the cat carrier. Let the kitten go into and out of the cat carrier to eat the food a couple times. First without you there and second with you sitting a few feet away reading a book. Don’t put out too much food because you want the kitten willing to get over its shyness to come close to you. When you’re sure the kitten is in the carrier and totally focused on the food pull the string and swiftly latch the door. Cover the carrier with a towel and take it into the bathroom you’ve decided on for kitten quarantine. (I suggest the bathroom because of the possibility of fleas. It’s easier to see/kill them in there.) Post your victory to twitter and call the vet to get the kitten in for a wellness check.
It’s really great you can do this in your backyard in reasonably good weather and not, say, in the rain in a neighbor’s front yard where everyone keeps stopping by to see what you’re doing as if it weren’t obvious. Just to pick a scenario at random.
If the kittecule makes eye contact, do the slow cat-blink in a sort of disinterested way. Do that a few times to show the minibeastling that you are calm and harmless. Then lie down on the ground with one hand sort of limply outstretched and talk softly to it.
I just thumbs-upped this comment especially for the word “kittecule.”
This mysterious quantum of kitten looks so much like your adult cat that I suspect it IS your cat traveling through time. Your cat is Dumbledore and the backyard kitten is Ron. You have the Ronbledore of cats.
Tumbledore.
Rum Tum Tumbledore?
If not yet caught – canned fish of any sort is usually enough – nice and smelly. I suspect you have been successful and therefore have the next part of the adventure to start.
Dirk Gently (the tv show) had a time travelling kitten/cat, so this is totally possible.
Catbleron?
I am going to call this a safe space to say, My cat has cancer. And it’s the wrong cat. She is my cat, and has been for 13 years. The other cat is her cat, and that cat and I have a pretty formal relationship. She is not the cat I want, and when my cat dies, she is going to be clear that I am not the cat she wants, either. We will be no comfort to each other, is what I’m saying.
I’m very sorry to hear about your cat’s cancer.
Oh I’m sorry. My soulmate cat is my ailing cat too. I love the other cats, but he’s my favorite.
I’m so sorry 🙁
Acquire a kitten that you and the other cat can both love and get comfort from?
That sucks. I’m so sorry.
When my cat escaped he went nuts in the wild, and would run from me whenever I went outside. I bought a Hav-A-Heart raccoon trap from Tractor Supply, and baited it with a chicken nugget. I caught first a squirrel, which I released, then my cat. And, the little booger, once I had him back in my apartment, could not climb on me or rub his face on mine enough. He shunned food in favor of more love and affection. Why did you make me buy that expensive trap, Hastings? Why not just run up to me, since clearly you love me so!
Now I feel bad for that poor, confused, possibly very lonely and heartbroken squirrel.
Picturing the sad lady squirrel from The Sword in the Stone.
I think we need the sequel that lady squirrel so richly deserves…
My cat also is one who goes nuts when outside. Completely hulks out and screams and yells and growls and turns enormous.
Cannot understand why he wants to be outside so badly all the time.
Is your cat named for Hercule Poirot’s sidekick/chronicler? Because that is delightful. And makes me hear your 2nd-last sentence in David Suchet’s voice.
(Is there another cat, with a more laconic attitude and an especially luxuriant set of whiskers?!? Please let there be.)
Tuna, tuna works for all things with cats. My cat used to hate when strangers came over: she’d hide no matter how nice they were to her. When my then-partner’s niece and nephew visited they fed her tuna constantly so she would stay out and they could pet her. That was eight years ago. She still loves visitors of all kinds. Her eyes light up and I know what she’s thinking, “I might get some tuna out of this!”
I am impressed with everyone’s patience to sit very still for hours on end and the like. When we caught our teeny tiny feral ball of fluff, it involved a number of fishing nets, trapping him, putting him inside a cooler for transport to a room, then forcibly holding him and petting him with welding gloves until he stopped trying to kill us and started trying to snuggle (about 5-6 minutes). He is now a lazy, people-obsessed whiner who has forgotten the hardy self-reliance of his early weeks.
Moxie: The Origin Story?
Illustration, from after the welding gloves came off:
Hee, that face!
i have died of Teh Cutes *falls ded*
FLOOF
OMG feets.
I audibly gasped. What a wee tiny little fluffy face!
irresistable.
I feel like it is a major oversight not to have Mr. Pants in this thread.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBXEmyQmj44
I managed to catch my Penultimate Cat when she was possibly smaller than your own unemployed visitor. Anyway, food under a propped laundry basket, rope attached to basket. It was all very cartoony, but it worked! Kittens may be young and quick, but they are also young and dumb.
I have heard of cats successfully being lured with beef stew. On the first try, no less.
If food does not work, I recommend some catnip just near your door.
Alternatively, just find someone who is allergic to cats. Cats can’t resist that, it’s like they know.
kittens often aren’t set up properly for liking catnip yet. though that will encourage the now cat to hang out and look friendly, which might lure Short Pants in for the lovin’s.
That kitten’s wee head is smaller than the can of what I can only assume to be delicious fishmeats.
STRING! In addition to everyone’s excellent suggestions of food and patience and humane traps, a kitten that age likes to play too, and I’ve had good results with a long string with a twisty piece of paper tied to the end. The string has to be long enough that you’re kind of far away from the kitty, but soon he’ll be so excited about the twisty paper that he won’t mind your presence too much. Also dragging a long stick through the plants (that bushel of morning glories!)
And yes, I agree with someone that chirruping is a good sign. Really feral cats (and most normal adult cats) don’t meow or vocalize much except for occasional yowling and growling. Kittens meow for their mothers, and socialized cats learn that meowing works on humans too. So his meowing means he needs a mommy / human. I bet he’ll come to see your extant cat as a father figure. (Or she, and a mother figure.)
Hand to god I know a lady who caught a canny old feral tom for TNR with a laser pointer.
Congratulations on your awesome cat-wrangling success! He is such a fuzzy wuzzy oodlums, isn’t he. Canned food: the Kryptonite of kittehs.
When I once found myself in this exact situation, I started feeding said wee kitten. Delicious kitten foods and water were waiting for the eensy one every day on my back porch.
One rather cold day, after a month or so of steady meals, he walked inside, of his own volition. He just followed me indoors when I came home from work. I took him to be neutered straight away, and the vet said he was about 5 months old. He is now my sweet pea darling boy kitty Greyson, and he’s 8 years old.
Chirrup back! But gently and a bit deeply. Also the food and the lowness and the general disinterestedness and stubborn stubborn patience. And the assistance of Current Cat. This is also how I make friends with introverted toddlers, except current cat is usually their mom.
I am so glad I found the first part of this story after I’d read Mallory’s tweets. Which I don’t do twitter very often. Mallory’s happy ending tweets made me cry into the fur of my own cat. Also, I’d had a glass of wine, which isn’t much, but it’s enough to apparently weep with joy into one’s older cat.
I totally read the title of this in Elmer fudds voice
There’s always the standby of sitting down in front of your computer and acting as if whatever you’re doing is on a tight, unbreakable deadline.
^ "I hate cats, so they will follow me anywhere."
Because, cats.