Baby

Lacey

Baby is the "middle child" of my current bunch. She is Manx Calico. I found her in front of a Wal-Mart in San Bernardino County out in the high desert. Her prior owners were giving her away. They had just given her kittens away and she was the last cat remaining. Her owners were moving to Las Vegas and had to give away all their pets. She looked so sad and lonely that I took her against my better judgement. I took her home and introduced her to Kingsford. There was the normal "hisspitting". For the first few days she was very wary of getting too far away from me. She would crawl in bed with me and curl up next to my arm while I am reading. Once she got used to the place she took a no holds bar attitude and would swat at Kingsford if he got too close or too curious. Once she established a working relationship with Kingsford, i.e. "Leave me alone, or I will make your face Swiss Cheese", things went great.

Because she was an indoor/outdoor cat previously, she was used to having access to the outdoors. Several times she escaped outside when I opened the door. She was a quick little thing. All I could see was an orange, black, and white blur going at warp speed heading out the door. Fortunately, she would stay around the apartment. After a while, she would come marching back up with her head held up high.

One time, she was gone for the whole day and I was really concerned that she wouldn't return. At the end of the day, I went out with a flashlight and rummaged around in the bushes around my complex. Thankfully, I found her hiding under a bush. I tried to get her but she just moved away from me. Finally, I had enough of it. I started to wonder how to get her out of the bushes. Well, it finally hit me that she must be hungry. I got her food bowl and put some Hill's Science Diet in it and went outside. I shook it and shook it and said "Here kitty kitty". I know it doesn't sound original but it worked. She heard the food rattling in the bowl and being the smart kitty, she came up the stairs and up to the bowl. However, she was hesitant and I couldn't move too quickly without scaring her. After a few moments she started eating. I then grabbed her and bought her back in. Of course she gave me a look that said "you idiot". However, I was happy to have her back in.

Baby turned into the most affectionate little cat. When I am typing on the computer she will crawl up in my lap and spread her stocky little body across my hands while I am typing. I can't type all that well when she is lying down on top of my hands. She looks at me and says in her own feline way, "Hey, stop working on the computer and use those hands for something useful, like petting me."

After a few months in the high desert area, I decided I had enough of being stuck out in the middle of nowhere without adequate employment opportunities. I then decided to head toward the Bay area.

I went shopping one day up in the Bay area. You guessed it! Some teenager was giving a kitten away. If you haven't guessed it, I am a softy for furry little critters, with the exception of rats, mice and other rodents.

Lacey is the newest addition. I got her from a teenager who was giving her away in front of a local market. She was a spunky little 2-month-old kitten who was just struggling to get out of the hands of the teenager. She was mewing in protest of being held. She was a being a little stinkerbutt and I fell in love with her "Don't tread on Me" attitude.

She is a domestic short hair with Tabby markings. She has a white tuxedo with white paws. What attracted me to her, besides her attitude, was the fact that her muzzle was white but her nose was brown. I thought it made an interesting contrast. I took her home. She quickly became accustomed to my two other cats, especially Baby. Baby would let Lacey nurse even though she wasn't lactating. They bonded like mother and daughter. They were the feline equivalent of Mutt and Jeff.

She turned out to be a total lap fungus. As soon as I sit down, she is in my lap sleeping. She also loves to climb screens and raise all sorts of trouble by playing tag with Baby. At night, they start chasing each other and playing "kitty ricochet" all throughout my apartment. Lacey also crawls onto my bed while I am reading and snuggles up next to me.

She is into everything. To her everything is a potential play toy. I open a drawer and she is in it investigating the contents. When I put my shoes on and tie my laces she pounces on them. After a round or two of this, I decided that her name will be Lacey. Later on she got her nickname of the "Hindering One" because if I was doing something she was there to supervise or as cats call it "hinder".

Nothing is safe from being hindered with. If it is real or imagined she plays with it, even when she shouldn't. As with most cats she gets the "midnight crazies". Her and Baby will chase each other while I am trying to sleep. Many mornings, I have woken up because they are thundering through the place. I then get up and shower if it close to my normal waking time. As soon as I walk in the shower, all the cats jump into my bed and promptly fall asleep. Is it a feline conspiracy to deprive humans of their sleep and appropriate the bed for their means?

She and Baby are both lap hounds. I can't sit down without both of them finding a comfortable spot on my lap. With both of them on my lap, I end up not being able to do anything other than petting them. Whenever I am doing the couch potato bit, you can bet both are going to use me as their "easy chair". Kingsford is also a lap hound as well, but he is orders of magnitude larger than either of the other two. His nickname is El Huge because of his ample size.

Copyright © William T. Chandler
Summer, 1998