slosh down the pepper!

Day 28 - 1 Nov 2012, Thursday - Melbourne

It is the 5th day I have not seen you. I never thought I will miss you. In the first 2 weeks, I even had in mind that I might get rid of you. I have been sneezing non-stop since the day you arrived and it became inevitable to associate my allergy with your cat litter, cat hair (you shed a lot for a small cat), cat saliva, cat food maybe. It was most annoying to get a blocked and runny nose in the mornings and evenings and whenever I am home. It doesn't help that you are also a very dirty messy eater. You always stick your nose into the food plate and use it to move the little pellets around, then walk to me and rub your head on your leg.. ewe! I think you are trying to show appreciation and love for your master who serves you food, or maybe you are just trying to clean your cheeks? I make sure to wash my legs before I go to work. If you don't realise, I forbid you to touch me when I am changed for work.

Other times, I admit that it's amusing to watch you wrestle with the cloth; only my mum sees it as a horror. My dad has begun to enjoy your presence, and brought 3 tennis balls for your entertainment. Sadly, you have not been enthusiastic and barely pushed away the ball only IF it ran into you. Tempest and I were always joking that you are of part-Bengal breed. You appear to be intelligent and like to jump around.  Look at how you can bite and tear up the tissue paper! And that one day where you were overjoyed to see a beetle flying into the house. It was stunning to watch you leapt into the air and slapped the beetle onto the ground. A few times! You were faster than the shutter can catch you in the act.

We brought you to the parents' house last Friday night because we need to leave for a holiday. That was the second visit to the house. The resident fat cat still doesn't like you. We knew immediately that the feeling was mutual when you returned her groans with loud hisses. Poor boy! You were hit many times by the Dad with newspaper because you hissed and bit him. We wondered how long it will take you to learn. Our worries are unfounded. We got a message last night from the Dad: "Your gangster cat act like king, attack fat cat once, i think fat cat don't like him and don't want to be friendly with him, they can sniff at each other without fighting now. He eat too much, your dry food will run out soon, always go and look for fat cat food and ate up the wet and dry food, then he is happy." Haha! Hee!tler, you are ever so amusing!

Day 1 - 5 Oct 2012, Friday 7.30pm

I was excited. He is my first. All I kept thinking was how fluffy and cute he was. Big ears with long overgrown tufts of hair extending beyond the inner sections of the ear, medium-length hair all over-especially heavy on the front chest, black nose and a clownish smile on his face. Perhaps "Charlie Chaplin" might be more apt, but we went with "Hee!tler", playing a pun on his name as this little fellow greeted us with a very loud hiss (sounds like heee!) the first time we spotted him in a drain hole.

The whole affair was swift. The Dad picked up the boy, plonked him into the basket already seated in the boot. Next minute, he was driven a good 20m and quickly transferred onto Tempest's car, lodged in the leg room area of the front seat. I had my foot on the basket; this little fellow was very much upset and kept meowing and yowling away, and a couple of times knocking against the lid, threatening to break his way through. The usual 20 minute ride felt like an hour; I was as nervous as he was.

Once in the carpark, Tempest took over, tightened the rope against the basket and took it in his hands. It was probably no more than 5 minutes when he was transferred to his new home - the blue bathroom. It only took a bit of mini fish-shaped cookies  to calm him down. Boy, we soon came to realize he was a greedy one. Once full and satisfied, he began his search of his big brother and little sister. Yowling and meowing in various tones and volume, he walked around the kitchen hoping to find familiar faces. The Dad came over a couple of hours later. He reverted to his playful ways and seemed contented. His happiness was short-lived. He needed to be locked up in the bathroom till we agree that he is capable of recognisng and using his litter box. So the yelling started, loud and clear and very long. We just hope that the neighbors don't complain.

Here is a picture of him before he was nabbed: