The big news is we got a new kitty from the animal shelter on Pine Island. His name is Ziggy and he is creamy orange, a large fellow, very affectionate, and is 5 years, 10 months old. Max is not happy but I trust they will learn to be friendly if not chummy. Ed chose the kitty. He has the feline immune virus and that only means that we must be super vigilant and get him treated right away if he gets sick. Which we do anyway. It is not contagious through normal activity. He would have to inflict a deep puncture wound on another cat for that cat to catch this. I don’t see this kitty wounding anybody. It is not his nature. He is being very gentle around the constantly hissing Max. And I am paying a lot of attention to Max, so he doesn’t feel I have betrayed him.

Ed is happy and he is the one who really wanted a second kitty since Max is not as bonded to him as he is to me. My reluctance has to do with loss. I am still undone from losing Chewy and Brunswick within a 10-month period. And I am prone to crying jags when I think of them. The only problem I am having is that Ziggy does happy paws on my chest at 3 a.m. I guess he is happy to have a home.

Visiting an animal shelter and choosing a kitty is agonizing. This particular shelter has rooms for those cats who don’t want to be in the general population, but they can go in and out at will. The rest just hang out everywhere. It is hard to choose one cat and many were friendly and curious. I was drawn to several but some of the most appealing were 12 or so and all of our kitties have died in their 13th, 14th year. It is hard to say no to a kitty who is wooing you. Marni is the woman running the shelter and she has a tremendous knowledge of all the cats. You ask her about a cat, and she’ll tell you his name, age, physical health, where he came from, who dropped him off, how long he or she has been there, all without looking anything up and they have about 50 cats.

Ed also liked another kitty who had been adopted but was not happy and wanted to be back in the shelter, the only home he’d ever known, so the people brought him back.
When I am feeling better, I may choose to volunteer at this shelter.

Meanwhile, the critter removal company signed off on a clear attic and that night I heard activity that was, apparently, a critter convention and they were fighting over the canapes. We'd had a violent thunderstorm earlier that day, and the entry points have not yet been sealed off, so perhaps the critters again used our attic as a refuge. The new trap set was empty as of today.

Our homeowners insurance is reviewing the claim and the critter people are charging a fortune for clean-up, replacement of insulation that is contaminated, and re-sealing, etc. It never ends.

xx, Teal