Thursday, November 8, 2012

Little Lady

We have a new little lady at our house. Her name is Naia and it's all Daddy's fault.

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Daddy and I spent Sunday night on the coast while Gramma and Papa stayed at our house to watch the girls. On Monday morning, Daddy said we should stop by the humane society and see their kittens. I'd been toying with getting a kitten for 6 weeks or so, but all the places around here are crazy difficult to adopt from. They want to do background checks and home visitations. It's crazy! We visited the Florence Humane Society just as the doors opened and they had so many sweet and adorable kittens! We can easily say it was love at first sight. I picked Naia up and she immediately flipped over on her back and started purring. She was just a little ball of love and sweetness. We knew she had to be ours. Within 10 minutes we were filling out the paperwork to bring her home. She was scared in the cardboard carrier so we let her have free reign of the car. She ended up perched on Daddy's shoulder. When we got home, I was a little nervous how it would go with Tiger and Cheeto. I was hoping that since she's not even 4mo old and a female that Tiger wouldn't feel threatened by her. I figured Cheeto would be perfectly okay with her once he realized she was part of the group. I was completely right about Cheeto. He sniffed her, she didn't run or act scared and he immediately started wagging his tale. He sometimes gets a little mouthy and hyper around her, but she'll hiss or swipe at him and he'll back off. Tiger wasn't such an easy sell. He was terrified of her. She's used to other cats and looked happy to see him, but he started hissing if she dared get close. He followed her around, keeping a fair distance, but making sure she was always in sight. If she faced him, he'd hiss. He never took a swipe at her or acted aggressive, he just seemed frightened. She eventually just started ignoring him and claimed her spot on the back of the couch, right next to where Cheeto normally sleeps during the day. Tiger would just eye her from his cat tree.

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Her first days here were a tad difficult on the accident side too. For some reason she decided Mira's bed made an excellent litter box. The first morning she pooped on Mira's pillow and peed on the mattress, body pillow and several stuffed animals. I'm glad we use waterproof mattress pads. The next morning, she peed on her bed again! I was getting worried since she was supposed to be litter box trained. We decided to take the lid off her litter box and leave her in the laundry room when we weren't home. I haven't discovered anymore accidents and I know she's been using her box. Yesterday, Tiger started to relax a bit. If they came close to each other, Tiger wouldn't hiss, but he was still uneasy. Eventually he came up and sniffed her while she continued to act disinterested. After the girls fell asleep last night, Naia was sitting under the coffee table and Tiger's tail was hanging over the edge. You can just guess how that ended. Naia went for his tail, he jumped, but it was like a light went on. You mean it plays??? That was it. They started playing tag all over the house. Tiger would chase Naia until he tagged her and then she'd chase him. Up and over furniture, under couches, all over the place. The best move was when Naia went under the swivel chair where Tiger no longer fits. She'd bap his paw and quickly retreat. He'd jump and try to get her. It was the funniest thing. Eventually they were all tuckered out. Naia jumped on the back of the couch and Tiger headed for his cat tree. When I went to bed, Naia followed. I woke up in the middle of the night with her curled up next to my head, purring like a chainsaw. Today, you would have thought they'd always been together. I caught them sleeping next to each other on the top of the couch. They both woke up to see what I was doing and then Tiger started grooming Naia! It was so sweet and she looked thoroughly pleased.

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Despite being so tiny and cute, she's incredibly loud. The first night, she kept Gramma and Papa up by yowling in the laundry room. She woke us up at 5am on Wednesday by crying in the hallway. She obviously doesn't like to be alone and she couldn't seem to find us in the bedroom. Tonight, as I was putting the girls to bed, I could hear her pacing the hallway mewing and yowling. She purred and chirped when I opened the door to lay Adia down. However, she was not pleased to discovered "her girls" sleeping. She likes them, even though they're incredibly loud and like to pick her up by her head. Yes, we're working on that.

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