Kitty Litter

First off-- Jeff has updated our browser, so NOW I CAN POST PICTURES AGAIN!!!

(Of course, this morning the camera is out of gas, so I need to charge it first.)

This morning's story is about the kittens at the pet shop. We had met the kittens two weeks ago. Critter Corral is good about fostering unwanted kittens-- people bring them in from the side of the highway, under their porch, you name it-- and Tracy and Heather let them live in the shop and get them their shots and find them homes. If they can't place the cats, they become shop cats and there they stay. (Amazingly, they only have 2 adult cats living at the store.)

Well, Boo LOVES cats. She takes after her Aunt Betsy that way. So the ladies always introduce her to the new kittens when she comes in to help me get Sam's food and other accoutrements. Last time, I found Alison in the employee bathroom trying to prise one kitten out from behind the toilet while she had the other one clutched, yowling, in her arms. She doesn't seem to mind when their frantic little nails (which are like needles) scratch at her; she's too busy trying to "hug" (read: squeeze the living hoo-hah out of) them.

I asked the staff if Alison was traumatizing the cats for life and making them hate small children. Apparently, not at all. The more kittens are handled by different kinds of people, the more used to it they get; it's the ones that never get roughhoused that grow up being skittish. So Boo is apparently part of the conditioning program. She does her job well.

We were in yesterday and every time I put Boo down, she would inevitably vanish and I would inevitably find her in the back room where the fostered kittens live. The cats would be clinging to the ceiling and squeezing themselves in much-too-small spaces to escape her clumsy affections. One poor beast made the mistake of needing to hit the litter box, and it was sitting there with this "do you MIND?!" expression on its face while Boo swatted it on the head and meowed at it.

I hope she gets over this phase, but I have a horrible feeling she won't. (No kittens for the 2nd birthday please. Oh God.)