We're happy to introduce a new addition to our family - a new kitten named "Ginny"!
We went to the Oregon Humane Society last Friday to meet the available kittens. Brielle had decided that she wanted a male tuxedo kitten, probably because she knows how much we loved Icky and Loco. When we arrived, I told her she could get any type of kitten she wanted, but she was set on meeting a 3-month-old male tuxedo named "Oreo". They took us to a private room where we could meet and play with him. He was so small and timid that he just hid under the bench. Brielle still liked him, but she agreed to meet another older girl tuxedo they had named "Ginny".
When Ginny came into the room, the difference was astounding. She immediately started rubbing against us and purring loudly, begging to be pet. She had no fear of the kids and jumped right up to them. In fact, Ronan was so taken aback that he scooted sideways away from her and nearly fell off the other end of the bench. We were all in love. I normally have a bias that male cats are more friendly than female ones, but Ginny amazed us.
They said that she was 4 months old, but she looked so much bigger than the 3-month-old we had just seen. Later, in her paperwork, I saw a vet report from August saying that she was 6 months old, so I have the feeling that's closer to the truth. She's long but still has a little kitty head and cute paws and is very playful. But she's big enough to hold her own with the kids, so we're less worried about her getting hurt.
When we got her home, we set up the laundry room with her litter, food, and a little bed - it was meant to be a "safe" room to let her get away from us and ease the transition. She did hide in there for the first hour. But when she emerged, she was friendly and ready to play. She doesn't use it as a safe room because she prefers to be with us and take naps on our laps.
Brielle set up a play area for Ginny. At first when she didn't play in her new house, Brielle became concerned. I told her that cats sometimes don't do what we want them to do. That's when she came up with the idea to set up a second box. She reasoned that if she tried to get Ginny to play in the decoy box, then Ginny would think she wanted her to play in there and decide to play in her house box instead. Clever girl.
I tried to give Ginny some catnip - I had told Brielle that it makes cats feel happy. When Ginny didn't seem to care for it, I told Brielle that some cats respond to it and some don't. Brielle stated, "That's okay. The catnip would just make her pretend happy. But she gets happy from being with us, and that's a better way to feel happy." Nice anti-drug message, Brielle!
Ginny is friendly to all of us, but she seemed particularly drawn to Kraig as soon as she met him. He wasn't able to go with us to pick her out, so I was so relieved that they ended up loving each other so much. She slept with me and Kraig the first two nights, and last night she slept with Brielle. It went well. She didn't cry or fuss to get out of the room at all. We really struck gold with this one. She's sleeping on my nap as I write this blog post. I've missed the warmth of a kitty on my lap!
I had some difficulty getting photos of Ginny with her eyes open. Part of it is that we're giving her this goopy eye medicine for conjunctivitis, and part of it is probably the camera flash.
When we adopted her we told Brielle that it would be fine if she'd like to change her name. We had been talking about possible cat names because I didn't realize that all shelter pets are apparently given names. But Brielle said she liked the name and wanted to keep it. Then for the next two days she kept asking us, "What's the kitty's name again?" We encouraged her to change it if it was too hard to remember, but she insisted on sticking with Ginny. She remembers it now, so "Ginny" it is!
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