potential new family member...

Yesterday my nephew came running into the house hollering. "Auntie Lissa! Are both of your cats in here??" He seemed really panicked which made me panic and start hunting for my cats. I found Olivia but William was nowhere in sight. The Monkey and I ran outside to find a cat up in one of the trees in the back yard. Thankfully, on the way to see said kitty, we saw our Fat Boy lounging in the window so both of our cats were, indeed, accounted for. Still, we went to rescue the kitty in the tree. She attempted to climb down to The Monkey but only made it part of the way before climbing back up. The Monkey climbed the tree (hehe...monkeys...tree climbing... [giggle]) and instantly became the kitty's savior. She was friendly enough, just a little wigged out about being held. (I held the scruff of her neck to keep her calm while I was holding her and I began feeling extremely thankful that both of my cats are declawed in the front.) She smelled really good and was very clean and I assumed she wasn't an outdoor cat. She looked to be somewhere between eight months and a year old at the most. We tried to find owners but none of the neighbors claimed her. I made The Monkey bring out some cat food and we left her to her own devices since it wasn't up to us whether or not we could adopt another cat. (We live with my sister, after all.)

Later that night, The Monkey started feeling guilty about leaving her outside because it started to get really cold. We went out to grab some dinner and while we were waiting on Drive-Thru Captain D's my niece called and said my sister let the cat in the house. :-o Imagine my shock! At any rate, she spent the night in the garage with us. She helped herself to some food and has already used the litter box a few times. She's very loveable. She slept with The Monkey all night. However, she's been very bitchy to our two cats so far. Poor William can't even walk by her without getting hissed at. :-( Right now we're sort of up in the air on whether or not we're going to keep her. For one thing, she's a little on the chunky side for her size and my sister and I are both wondering if she's a soon-to-be Momma cat. I looked online for signs of cat pregnancy and the only thing I could find was protruding nipples. I compared hers to Olivia's and hers are definitely more noticeable. I don't think I can handle a pregnant cat. I had Olivia fixed LONG before she was even able to get pregnant so I've never had to worry about kittens. I think we'll hold onto her for a few days and maybe see if we can get her to a vet to find out for sure whether or not she's expecting. If she is... well, I'm not sure what we're going to do just yet. If we take her to a shelter it would definitely have to be a no kill shelter. I can't bear to leave her out on the streets, though. Especially considering how friendly and loveable she is!

So I'm really hoping she's just fat/well fed. I'm also hoping that she'll lose the 'tude quickly and stop being a bitch to my other two cats. If we do decide to keep her she'll definitely have to be fixed and declawed. No unfair fights for my other two babies! :-P For now, we're calling her Jasmine. (The name just came to me the way the names for all of my other cats have in the past.)





She is a cutie! And her eyes are a really lovely shade of green.