Meet Minerva.  AKA, Minnie for short. 

She’s the newest member of our family.  A little over a month ago my husband was walking our son to school, and along the way he found this adorable kitten on the sidewalk around the corner from our house.  She was dirty, covered in fleas, but very friendly.  They stopped to pet her and when she was still sitting there on his way back home, he decided she needed his help.  He brought her home and made signs to put up around the neighborhood indicating a lost kitten had been found and gave his contact info so her owner could come and claim her.

In the meantime, he took her to the vet and had her checked out to make sure she was healthy.  He had her bathed, flea dipped and had the vet start her kitten shots since we were unsure if she’d had any vet care.  The vet estimated her to be about six months old.   When he got home I said, “You just spent $200 at the vet on a stray cat.  Are you sure you aren’t planning to keep her?”

The truth is that Dan has always been unable to walk away from an animal in need.  And I really do love that about his personality.  If he can help someone, or save an animal, he will do it.  No questions asked.  And the other motivating factor is that this kitten likes him.  She claimed him from day one for her very own.  We have two other cats and Dan rescued them both.  Lucy shows a decided preference for our daughter, and Linus prefers me above all others.  Dan is tired of cleaning litter boxes and saving the lives of animals who then don’t give a shit about his feelings.  He saves them and then they shut him out.  But not Minerva.  He decided to work from home the day he picked her up off the street and I don’t think she left his lap for several hours while he worked.  She loves him and has grown more attached to him over the past several weeks.

It’s been about six weeks now and no one called to claim her.  So Dan named her after Minerva McGonagall from the Harry Potter book series.  About two weeks ago, Minnie went into heat.  I had forgotten that female kittens could start their heat cycles as early as six months of age, and she’s about 7 1/2 months old now.  It’s been years since I’ve had an intact female in the house, and believe me when I say that I now realize why vets and breeders encourage you to spay/neuter your pets as quickly as possible.

She loves to lay in the sink.

The past two weeks have been…..stressful.  She yowls at all hours of the day and night.  Like, she is literally singing the song of her people.   She’s constantly making some kind of noise and she makes these chirpy bird like sounds.  I read on the internet that she’s trying to identify and call a mate.  I’m thanking God the weather has been cool and we’ve had the windows closed, otherwise my house would be surrounded by male cats.  And she’s started scent marking!  OMFG!  I thought only male cats did that.  And our other female, Lucy, who was fixed years ago is not having any of it.  She is mad as hell that Minnie is trying to mark over what she considers to be her territory and she is aggressively attacking Minnie at every opportunity.  So between the constant sex calls at all hours, trying to prevent this kitten from peeing all over my house, and heading off or breaking up serious, fur flying, claws drawing blood cat fights, my patience is worn thin.

Dan took her to the vet to have her fixed the day after we realized she had started the heat cycle, but they wouldn’t do the procedure until she was finished.  So we’ve been living in cat hell for two weeks.  And last night it got worse…

Don’t let that sweet face deceive you!

At 3am, I woke up suddenly when I rolled over from my stomach and felt my pajama bottoms were wet on the back of my thigh.  I reached down and touched my pants and there was a circle of something wet.  And it wasn’t a little wet, but saturated.  I smelled it and it was fucking cat pee!  I jumped out of bed thinking Minnie had pee’d in the bed.  I started frantically feeling around in the dark trying to determine the extent of the damage, but everything was dry.  I woke Dan up but he couldn’t find the mess either.  Cat pee does not magically appear on your person, so there had to be a spot on the bed, right?

Nope.  That little shit pee’d on me while I was sleeping!  Dan said, “I think she was trying to mark you as her territory.”  And I said, “Well, I am not fucking flattered!”

She gets fixed on Wednesday, and Wednesday can’t come soon enough.