I WAS ON MY WAY TO THE OFFICE. . . . . .Well there I was, tootling on my way to work. Just getting into town and going under the first bridge when I saw what looked like a little animal rolling off the freeway. "Just keep going, just keep going" I was telling myself, knowing that if it was a cat all we needed was number 9 in our household. Well how could I? Of course I had to stop, it could get hit by a car quite easily if I just left it there! So, I pulled over, walked back to under the bridge and there was this little kitten. I grabbed it as it ran from me and it had blood in its mouth, not like pouring out, just a little blood. I figured it had been clipped by the car in front of me but was sure that it had internal injuries and wouldn't last the day.
So, I put the little bugger in the car and immediately it wanted to crawl up into the heating duct. Oh no, this won't work, what do I have to put it in? Aha, my file box in the back of the car. I put it in and then took a bungee cord and strapped it down. Actually, I realized once I got it to the vet that the box had hand-holes on each side and the little critter could have forced itself out of the box if it wanted. Well it didn't, it was quite quiet. As I was driving off, about 100 yds up the road was momma kitty who had been run over by a car. If only these animals could talk huh?Left kitty at the vet to have it looked over, again not expecting it to last out the day.
At 4pm, called the vet. "Your kitty is ready to go home"Me: "What did it have wrong with it?"
Vet: "Just a concussion and a scraped lip, keep it in a quiet place for a couple of days and it will be fine"
Me: "OK, let's take you home to the "house of endless food"
Now, for those of you that aren't owners of 2 or more cats you must understand that the more you have the more of a heirarchy there is among them. There is usually one alpha male and at least two more that want to be the alpha male. This means lots of growling and agressive stand-offs. It just happens that we have 7 males and 2 females. The females are old, over 11 yrs, and just spend their days sleeping on our bed. Sambo, Clark and Smokey are friendly welcoming boys, they are just happy to be living with us and will accept whatever we throw at them, cats, dogs, alpacas, etc. Scruffy, Lewis and Percy on the other hand all want to be "in charge" and so it's funny to see these big bruisers so afraid of a little kitten. Yes, they growl and leave the house when they see it.
Obviously I was aware of all this when I was taking the "I think it's a little boy" (receptionist at vet said) home wishing that I really had a little girl as it might make life a little easier for kitty. Got home and of course for the first two days we kept it in the front porch garden room where we could keep it isolated and away from prying kitty eyes and noses. That was fine as kitty was very sleepy and scared. It had had one hell of a day.
Now we had to come up with a name. Right away Jerry decided we should call it "Little Shit". As I said to him, if men were left to name all pets 80% or more would all have the word "shit" in their name. Why do they think that's cute? Why can't the be more original in naming their pets? Maybe if we left it up to them to name their children they too would be 80% with "shit" in their name???
Well his redeeming grace. . . he said "What about Oliver, like in Oliver North?"
Me: "Why him?"
Jerry: "Well he got into a big scrape and came out of it"
Me: "Well that's kinda clever, ok we'll call him Oliver"
2 days later - Friend comes to visit, we're saying how we're not sure of the sex of this kitten, he looks it over and informs us it's a girl. OK, name change to Olivia, I guess it could have been Olive but I think of Popeye's Olive Oil and it doesn't fit. So, Olivia it is.
Olivia has settled in just fine, is quite feisty and quite willing to make friends with all the other 8 cats. She's finding out who to avoid and who plays rough. All-in-all she has settled in very well and is getting to the point where she's learned to sleep on the bed beside me. Doesn't take long does it?
