When I got home with our new family member I put the kitten in the bathroom so Otter wouldn’t mess with it. I made an appointment for the Ex (then the current) to take the kitten to the vet the next day (I had a prior commitment).
When the Ex saw that kitten he told me I had to go, immediately, to the pet store to get a bottle and kitten formula. I assured him that the kitten could eat solid food, but I suspect the Ex believed I wanted a kitten so much that I had lied about that.
I got kitten formula, a bottle, and everything else we needed for our little kitten, the sex of which the Ex has ascertained was male. I named him Joaquin after the hotel where I found him.
Little Joaquin, when presented with the bottle of baby formula, did not suckle. Instead, he chewed on the nipple and then lapped up what dripped out. We put the formula in a tiny bowl for him.
The next day at the vet Joaquin was immunized and given a clean bill of health. He weighed nine ounces. The vet said he was probably three weeks old and would be a small cat, probably only seven or eight pounds.
Because we had a dog, we had to feed little Joaquin on the counter, where Otter could not get to his food (cat food is too high in protein for dogs). Only Joaquin was too tiny to be able to jump on the counter so we had to provide him a step stool.
If we went near the little guy when he ate he would growl from deep within his tiny little chest. Since his food bowl was in a high traffic area in the house we had to break him of the growling habit. The Ex started petting him when he ate, especially if he was growling. The growling whilst wolfing down food soon stopped.
Joaquin figured out pretty quickly that he had it made. He started terrorizing Otter. Otter was around ten years old and had had two back surgeries. She was not a young kitten. Joaquin would attack Otter when she was sleeping under covers. He was a little asshole to her.
When Joaquin weighed just over two pounds we got him fixed. I had avoided having male cats as an adult because of the nasty spraying problem. When I was a kid we had a male cat that was either fixed too late or not fixed properly because he still sprayed as an adult cat. Once, when my step-sister stopped petting him, he turned around and sprayed on her leg. I certainly didn’t want my cat doing that.
Joaquin has been locked in every closet, cabinet, and bathroom in the place. When he was a kitten we were always losing him. Now he only gets “locked” in the bathroom – the door is open but the lights are off so he meows in fear.
He meows a lot. A lot more than my ideal cat would meow. He meows when someone leaves. He meows in the mornings. He meows when all the lights are out. Mostly, he’s just looking for attention, but I suspect that sometimes he is confused because the room he’s in is dark.
When he was a kitten we let him outside on the patio. He was so small that he couldn’t jump on the patio wall and get away. Then he went through a phase where he’d get outside, take off, and be gone all night. Now he mostly stays in, even when the back door is open. There is a maze of backyards and unused spaces to which he has access from the patio. I’m pretty sure he has never made his way to a road. I like to think that.
Joaquin is fully grown at seven pounds. He is very cute. He’s mostly black with white chin, chest, and belly. He wears two tall white boots on his back legs, the left one of which has a small black spot, and two toes of each of his front paws are white. He’s not quite symmetrical, but he’s damn close. Sad but true: I would not have snatched him up if he had an asymmetrical face.
The little guy sleeps at my feet or between my legs since Otter died in February 2007. Every morning he wakes up, meows until I call him, then sits on my chest so I can pet him and scratch under his chin.
Joaquin is a nutty guy when it comes to water. He thinks any water-containing vessel is his. This includes my glasses of water, the dog’s water bowl, and the house’s bathtubs. If the water level in a glass is such that he can’t reach the water by sticking his head in the glass, he’ll stick is paw in the water and lick it off his paw. That’d be fine if only he didn’t also dig around in his litter box.
When the water level in the glass is such that he thinks he can reach it if only he could get his head in far enough but he can’t, he usually gets his head stuck, panics, and lifts his head. The glass inevitably falls to the floor, spilling what water was left in the glass, and more often than not breaking the glass. Joaquin has broken a lot of glasses. I have to remember not to leave temptation for him.
Cat nip does nothing for him. He’s singed his tail on a candle without realizing it. He’s burned his paws on the stove, a flat ceramic cook top. The only time he hasn’t properly used his litter box he had a urinary tract infection; he is now on prescription food to prevent recurring infections. When we fire up the gas fireplace he always lays right in front of it, even if that means he takes over the dog’s bed. He was a jerk to Otter, but knows not to mess with Isis.
Most of the time when I’m writing Joaquin is sitting on my desk under the heat of my halogen desk lamp. He’s there right now.
I love my furry little cat-boy.
I swear. True story.