Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

New Kitten
Just as I was walking up the street coming home from work I met Erika coming down from one of our neighbours where our kids were having a play date. Then I noticed she had a funny bulge in her jacket and was carrying a box. The box was kitten chow, and the bulge turned out to be a new kitten -- the last of a litter that our neighbours had.

Well before getting the kitten we had talked about getting a second cat, but wanted to wait a bit since we both felt that Blackberry – my elder daughter's cat – had been presented to her too early. She wasn't really ready to deal with a cat and think of him as much other than a toy with claws, and as a result Blackberry is a nice cat, but not the most approachable of cats, tending to shy away from people.

But then we got the offer of a kitten from our neighbours. The idea was that this would be a cat for our youngest daughter. We thought about it and realized that Annie is pretty good around Blackberry, having grown up with him, and more importantly, respects him (and his claws). She's still young, but the opportunity was there, so we agreed to take the kitten when she was old enough. And that day was today. She is a little black haired cat, who looks like she will also be a longhaired cat like Blackberry.

The other worry was what would Blackberry -- our other cat – think about the new cat. So after introducing the kitten to the litter box and to her food/water dish, Erika introduced the kitten to Blackberry. Blackberry just seemed vaguely interested, but the kitten was scared and hissed at him. Basically she's kept her distance and he's kept a not completely disinterested eye on her.

The girls of course were thrilled when they got back home, and we had to rein them in from constantly wanting to pick up and manhandle the kitten. Luckily it almost their bedtime when they got home from the play date, so it gave the kitten a good chance at settling in after having had a good sniff and a general "explore" all over the place.

The kitten's name at the other household was "Raven", but we've given the honour of renaming the kitten to Annie, since it to be her cat. No name yet though.