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Blue joined out household when my husband
told me that he's like a little pussy for his birthday. He loved
the temperament of Pumpkin, and thought a blue cream Persian would
be the perfect compliment to Pumpkie. While attending a cat
show, we mentioned to a breeder that we were looking for a blue
cream "parti-girl" and were referred to a breeder who
had a kitten matching our requirements. When we arrived at the breeder's
home, it was love at first sight!
Blue sat on my husband's lap and purred
during the entire 3 hour drive from the breeder's house to our home,
The Ghetto Estate. She was such a tiny little kitty when we brought
her home. But Panyan Pou made friends with her, and we had no trouble
integrating her into our cat family. Most authorities recommend
isolating a new kitten for a period of time to give the other cats
in the house time to adjust to the new "cat aroma". Isolation
is also a good idea to prevent the kitten from contracting any organisms
that the cats in the existing household may have developed an immunity
to. It also protects the existing cat household from any organisms
which the new kitten may be carrying. I had never gone through the
isolation process with my kitties, and did not isolate Blue. While
there was some initial hissing and spitting, she was accepted by
the other kitties within a week. I only separated her on those occasions
when a human was not going to be home to supervise.
Lesson learned -- ALWAYS ISOLATE ANY
NEW KITTY YOU BRING INTO THE HOUSE. A few weeks after Blue joined
us, I noted some lesions on my beautiful Pumpkie. A trip to Dr.
Giles revealed that ringworm
had been introduced into our household. Pumpkin developed huge oozing
lesions, and her beautiful fur began falling out in large clumps.
The ringworm spread to the other kitties in the house, but none
developed as bad a reaction as Pumpkie. I was devastated. I eventually
got rid of the infection, but it took months. It required weekly
cat baths with a sulphur based shampoo that stank up the entire
house (and the kitties), washing down surfaces with a bleach solution,
a lot of vacuuming, medicine to topically treat the lesions and
numerous trips to see Dr. Giles.
Blue quickly established her place in
the household. She would wait in hiding at the bottom of the steps.
When another kitty came down the steps, she would stand up on her
back legs, front paws above her head, and pounce. Thus, the nickname
Boo! was born. Tiny Boo! took on any kitty in the house, including
MeCoon who was 4 times her size. Whenever a kitty decided to swat
Boo! to put her in her place, Boo! would assume that play was being
initiated. She tackled other kitties like a linebacker. I often
saw Panyan Pou walking down the hall with Boo! firmly attached to
her back.
One evening while my husband and I were
laughing at Boo!'s antics, he commented that I had given him a non-fective
kitty and inquired about her warranty. I replied that she was only
warranted to be a blue kitty. Outside of that, she came as is. Boo!
is our AsIs kitty. Like all kitties, Boo! is a Mewster. However,
she falls into the special subset of Mewsters whose characteristics
include booing. That makes her a Booster. In our household "boo"
has become a synonym for bad, as in "I had to throw the bananas
out because they went boo."
Boo! has grown into a very sweet kitty
with a non-stop purr. As she has matured, her booing bouts have
become less frequent, and the other kitties are grateful for this.
My husband loves his Boo! kitty aw-so-much, and says she's the best
birthday present he ever got. However, the addition of Boo! to our
household meant we had 5 cats. 5 is a prime number!
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