Well, our little Missy has been a member of our family for about 3 weeks now. She was just 5 weeks old when we got her. Now, as far as I'm concerned, that's way too young for her to have been taken away from her Momma. I was fully prepared to have to teach her all of the things her Momma didn't have a chance to show her. Little things like how to eat solid food and use the litter box. Well, I was pleasantly surprised. Although she hadn't been completely weaned, she gobbled up her canned Friskies like crazy. I know, Friskies isn't the best food for her, but she turned up her nose at the Innova, Nutro, and Maxcat and Iams gave her gas and the runs......so Friskies it is.

As for the litter box, only one accident so far, and that was the day that I accidentally put the baby gate that keeps the dog out of the cats' room too low for her to go underneath and she hadn't figured out how to go over yet. She still hasn't quite got the hang of covering her business after she's done, but she tries.

Missy had been given a bath by the pet store the day before we bought her so when she came home she smelled like vanilla. Now, don't get me wrong, I love the smell of vanilla, but it's rather disconcerting to rub your face in a fuzzy kitty tummy and get a big whiff of vanilla...it's just wrong some how. I considered giving her a bath....well the thought crossed my mind for about a millisecond anyway. I have been a well trained cat slave for far too long to seriously plan on giving any cat a bath. I just decided to let it wear off, it would have to fade eventually....right? Well, seems like there was something Missy didn't know how to do after all. Apparently, momma cat never got around to teaching Kitty Grooming 101.

Now, I mentioned that it's been three weeks since we got her, right? Did I also mention that she had been having terrible gas and the runs? Well, combine those two factors with the fact that she couldn't bathe herself properly and you get one smelly little critter. Now, don't get me wrong, she did try. She just didn't have all of the poses, positions and angles down right. She'd try to wash her bottom and get distracted by her waving tail. Then she'd try to wash her face with her paws and end up falling asleep.

This morning, I decided that Li'l Missy was going to get a bath as soon as I got home from work. It goes against all of my slave training, but it just had to be done. I was not going to share my pillow with something that smelled like that!!

Well, when I got home from work this afternoon, I knew immediately that something was wrong. Sadie and Lucy were there to greet me at the door, but where were Demon and Missy? I called them, but they didn't come. I rattled the food dishes, still no kids....then, from down the hall, I heard the most pathetic, plaintive meows. Little tiny, scared, hurt kitten meows. My heart in my throat, I rushed down the hall to the guest room (aka kitty hotel). There, in the middle of the bed, lay Demon and Missy. He had her pinned down, one arm across her chest, the other holding her butt down........licking for all he was worth. And she was crying as loudly as she could. At one point, she got away from him and ran into the living room. He calmly followed her in there, grabbed a hold of her and continued washing. When he finally let her up, I had one slightly damp,very cranky...but also very clean...kitten on my hands. Seems Demon got tired of the smell too and decided to take matters into his own hands and clean up the smelly baby! Big Brothers....ya just gotta love 'em!!

Copyright © Kathy Hyle
December 7, 2000