measi's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Luna interlude After the weekend of slight straggling with the challenge of eating out constantly, yet also calculating Weight Watchers points, Erich and I drove the lengthy distance to the grocery store (translation=across the damn street from our apartment) to actually BUY groceries last night. What a concept. Lots of Smart Ones and Lean Cuisine dinners (thanks to the pre-calculated WW points on them so we know EXACTLY where we are for the day), guiltless potato chips, salsa, fat free flavored popcorn, light chocolate soy milk (my little treat-- plus calcium), and random other stuff later... about $150 was charged on my credit card and was brought home to restock the house-- top to bottom. As we headed up the two flights of side stairs in the building, Erich glanced through the fire/quiet door on the second floor and saw... a cat... looking a bit confused and slinking around in the hallway. Of course, Erich (who is worse than me at times with needing to touch and pet every cat he encounters), wants to pet said cat. And since it's in the hallway, we also needed to do something to protect it-- with 30 apartments on 3 floors in our building, there's generally a lot of activity in the halls. We didn't want this cat to get outside in case it was someone's... particularly with two major streets right next door and a whole colony of feral cats behind the complex (where Gus probably originated). We hurried upstairs, dropping the food in Jason's care in the apartment, and headed back down. The cat was a bit skittish, but almost immediately came to Erich's outstretched hand. He scooped her up, brought her up to the apartment, and we set up a little kitty pen in the bathroom (where she could be closed off), complete with dry food, water, and the mini litterbox that we'd used in Gus' kittening pen (always good for those emergencies, you know?) She turned out to be an extremely affectionate cat-- even to both of us as complete strangers. She kept walking between us, weaving and rubbing on our legs as we gave her pets. She also could smell the other cats on the other side of the door, who were EXTREMELY interested in who was being penned. She also was a striking little girl-- a bit smaller than Fizz (somewhere in the 5-6 pound area), patched-style calico, with extra toes (6 on each foot) on both front feet giving her Michigan-shaped front paws. By looks, I guessed that she was probably still a kitten-- she had that gangly look about her of "still growing." I estimated her at around 4 months. As I found out later in the evening, I was off by half-- she's the same age as Gus, around 9 months. I'm just used to the big monster that is our "kitten." We also could tell that she was an indoor cat-- all four feet were pure white. And all four were near-pristine. Absolutely no sign of ever going outside. After a little while, we left her alone to settle down and get some rest. Erich put up lost cat signs on the doors with our phone number, and we went through the agony of discussing what to do with her "in case." The reality is that until we have a house, we can't take on another cat. We don't have the room nor money for #4. Not to mention the fact that Jason would flip having another one to deal with. Erich said that if we didn't find her owner, he'd contact Randolph Animal Hospital since they do checkups and adoptions straight from the vet. While I knew that would be the right thing for her, my heart still felt depressed over it. It's because I know that *my* cats are well cared for, and giving the cat to the unknown frustrated me-- especially one that was instantly so friendly. I threw out some other alternatives-- seeing if Erich's mom would be interested in another, or possibly Greg and Kelly, now that their attention is turned to the new baby born this week-- they have a solo cat who might need a playmate for attention. Around 11:30, we received a call from a woman down in apartment 14. She came up-- and we discovered that the little calico cat's name was Luna. Our neighbor saw all three of our cats and did the "yes, this woman is a cat lover" indicator by baby-talking to them, offering out a hand for Colley to sniff. And Colley, who is usually skittish as hell with strangers who haven't sat down, went RIGHT UP TO HER. He even gave her a rub. I'll go by the cat instincts-- Luna has a good home. :) Erich helped her downstairs, since Luna was a bit freaked out and didn't seem too thrilled about being carried after her ordeal. When he returned, he checked to see if I were okay. (I was). 10:44 a.m. - 04 May 2004 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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