The Christmas Kitten

Time for Eeva's grand introduction!

The day we brought her home!

Eeva is about a year old now, but she'll forever be our kitten.

Late last year, Tristan decided that as his roommate at the time was supposed to be moving out soon, and he was going to be alone, he needed some companionship around his place. We decided adopting a kitten was the best idea - and Imgur (a site we both visit regularly) is full of kittens doing very cute things.

After days of patrolling Petfinder.com (Great site, by the way!), and falling in love with a couple of kittens that weren't available, we found a site called Heartofthemidlands.org (Also, a great - if heartbreaking - site!). There are both cats and dogs, and when they appear on the site they appear with a date, and a few days after that date, that animal is euthanized. The whole site is a list of kittens, cats, puppies and dogs who are all on death row!

Such an ornery Christmas kitten!

So I found Eeva on the site, and it took a little bit of coaxing, but eventually, Tristan fell in love with her, based solely on her picture. So, we decided to get her. We went through the application process, got her supplies and made friends with a fantastically English volunteer with an organization involved in saving the pets on that site, then, finally, she was ours to pick up and take home! We waited for her to be spayed, and for me to be there before picking her up. I came down on my christmas vacation, and Eeva quickly became the christmas kitten!

She used to be attached to us both, until I had to return to school for extended periods of time, and could no longer visit regularly. What used to be a kitten who would mew at the computer during skype conversations or paw at phones on speaker phone because she could hear my voice, quickly became a kitten who now hates me.

She gets into everything!
 Her favorite spot is laundry though!

Eeva is so attached to Tristan at this point that she goes crazy when he's not around. If he is gone for more than a single work day, she starts getting a little aggressive in her play with myself, and the other animals. She has separation anxiety to the extreme.

Now that we have Shadow, she's consistently growling, remember the pig story? It hasn't gotten that bad... yet... and she doesn't get all fuzzed anymore unless Shadow attempts to play with her, but now she's costantly growling and doesn't really want to cuddle with anyone - even Tristan (who is okay with that situation, as the first few hours of Shadow being her, he got fairly scratched up).

Fortunately for Eeva, she's a cutie, so we'll keep working on her, see if she'll become that sweet little kitten again!

Went out for a house, came home with a cat

So! I've decided that I post all of these stories about our animals, and even gave you an introduction on the hedgehog, so you guys should probably meet some of the other animals! They're in no particular order what so ever.

Meet Sarafina!

One of the only good pictures I have of her!

Sarafina has a sad story that ends incredibly happily. 

At one point Tristan was looking at buying a house where we are now. We were primarily looking into foreclosed homes that we could fix up a bit and turn around and sell in a few years time.

Our little back door guardian. 

In our hunt for a good home, we walked up to a home and a cat ran up to us, she meowed and rubbed up on our legs, twirling herself between all of our legs. I didn't notice anything except the fact that she was incredibly malnourished and seemed sweet, until Tristan and the Realtor pointed it out to me - the cat only had three legs to walk on.

As we walked around the house, realizing we probably weren't interested in buying it, we noticed the cat never left the door, and when we went near it, she'd paw at the door lightly and meow. It was quickly decided that the previous owner had either died or moved out and left the cat behind to fend for itself. After watching a few toms in the neighborhood swat at her for trying to get at the plate of food the neighbor left out for them, I tried to pick her up. Once that was a success, we couldn't leave her there - well, I couldn't, and Tristan's a sucker when I start to become a bleeding heart for the homeless pets...  - we worked out a way to get a carrier from the Realtor and some canned food from her personal store, and tried to catch her.

Finally in the crate she was completely freaked out and dying of thirst, we took her to Petsmart and bought flea medications, and some essentials from around the house. It was obvious that as long as the vet didn't hear back from the number listed under the microchip, she was a keeper.

She likes to chirrup as she gets into this position,
she knows we're suckers for it. 

The two cats didn't quite get along at first, which was mostly Sarafina's fault. As a cat coming in off the street, I didn't really blame her for hissing and running away every time this little kitten came towards her, all she'd seem to have known from other cats is getting beat on - something that hasn't really changed around the apartment.

Unfortunately, she fell in love with me, and was very wary of Tristan, that meant, when I left a couple of days later, she spent most of her time locked away in a cabinet. She rarely came out, and when she did it was to eat, drink, poo and then go right back in. Some days, Tristan truly worried she would die in a cabinet and he would never really know. We figured that she was just afraid of men.

Now, she's a big sweety. The instant I moved in she got better about coming out, and now she very rarely hides - if at all - and is a big purr machine - when I touch her. She LOVES to cuddle and snuggle and be close to people, and is actually very well adjusted for being a three legged cat. In a race, she might actually beat Eeva!

Sometimes, if you're careful, you can even capture their cuddles on camera!

The two cats still don't get along, but the blame falls mostly to Eeva at this point. When you do catch them being nice to each other, it's just about the cutest thing on the planet.