Many of you might remember when our beloved cat, Toby, died in February. It was really tough because it was so unexpected. He was only six and had to be put to sleep due to kidney failure. We’ve missed him so much. He was a great cat. We still have had a cat — Henry. But he’s kind of like my cat. He’s nine and he’s been with me since he was a tiny kitten. Toby had turned into my wife’s cat.  He really loved her. Me too, but he gravitated to her. And she’s missed that. She’s felt like Henry rejects her in favor of me and for a good three months or more, she’s been bugging me about getting another pet. She wanted a dog, because she’s a dog person, but they’re such a responsibility, so she was willing to consider another cat. Our main concern was how Henry would react, because he’s not very friendly with cats and sometimes barely tolerated Toby, especially during his last year. Well, she wore me down, because I didn’t want another pet, but one can only take so much. So we started going to the local shelter. Gretchen found a cute three legged dog she wanted, but when we went back to adopt it, it had already been adopted. We took that as a sign. So Friday, this shelter had a “Black Friday” deal where you could adopt a pet for free. We got there 15 minutes after they opened and it was a zoo! The parking lot was completely full and we were lucky to find one last space in the grass. We went in and had to fill out paperwork just to see the cats. And we found a room that had some kittens. We were told kittens are usually gone this time of year. They’re snapped up quickly. But we saw a gray and white tabby, which looked a little like Toby, so we asked to see him and we were put in a private room with him. Gretchen held him and he was well behaved. His name was Twinkles, but Gretchen didn’t like that name and decided to name him “Ace.” I didn’t like that name, but couldn’t come up with anything better, so Ace it was. We decided to adopt him. He was three months old, but was only a pound and a half and looked about six weeks old. He’d already been fixed and had gotten his shots. We were taken out to the lobby to wait for the adoption. And wait we did. We waited about an hour before they got to us. It took for freakin’ ever! I was just about ready to just walk out of there with Ace in hand and forget the paperwork when they started on us. Finally, after we had been there a good two hours, we left with Ace.

When we got him home, we had to put him someplace private where Henry wouldn’t immediately see him and go nuts. We had the perfect room — our library. It’s got five bookshelves, a couch, and a end table and lamp. That’s about it. We put a new litter box in there and some food and water and let Ace out of his carrier. He explored the room and had a lot of energy. He was so cute. And he was hungry and thirsty. Boy, he went at it! He also crawled over each of us, although I tried to kind of stay away so he and Gretchen could bond. We wanted him to become Gretchen’s cat.

We left Ace in the library for the day, visiting him occasionally and trying to reassure him he was in a good place. He seemed to be doing well. Meanwhile, Henry was camped outside the door. He looked a little surly. I guess he could tell somehow. At dinner time, we put up a gate at the door and opened the door so they could see each other. Henry hissed twice, but that was it. Ace seemed a little scared, but after all, at 15 pounds, Henry was 10 times as big as Ace. We fed each of them on either side of the gate. Ace really attacked his food, but Henry didn’t eat much and wandered down the hall to lie down and watch from a few feet away. And that was Friday.

On Saturday, it was more of the same. We had a number of errands to run, but after lunch, we decided to bring Ace out into the rest of the upstairs and let him see it. Henry seemed a little surly, but didn’t hiss. Later that day, we let Ace run around the living room. The two cats kind of kept apart, but it went well and Ace was excited to be out of his prison. Heh.

Yesterday, we let Ace out and just watched. He had so much energy! He ran all over the place. We had the doors to the bedrooms and downstairs closed, but he was crazed. He ran all over the kitchen, getting under the china hutch and worrying us, and all over the dining room, and back into the living room, where he attacked our freshly put up Christmas tree. We really had to watch him and it was a two person job because he was so darn fast. He used Henry’s litter box and drank his water, but we kept their food separate because Ace is eating kitten food and we put Prozac in Henry’s food, so we definitely don’t want Ace getting that.

We let Ace out several times throughout the day and at a couple of points, he and Henry sniffed each other successfully and Henry even licked him on the head. When Ace is out, though, Henry seems subdued. I don’t think he likes it too much, but he doesn’t really seem depressed or too upset. He’s still nice to us and comes to us and sleeps with us at night, so that’s a good sign. When we put Ace back into his room, he now makes little teeny sounds because he wants back out, but he needs to rest and so do we. Heh. He’s a real cutie and I think Gretchen is very happy to have him and I guess I am too. Hopefully, before too long, he and Henry will be getting along pretty well and we can let Ace out of his room more frequently. I’m going to post a few pictures from this weekend. I hope you enjoy.