A Tale of Two Kitties

It was the biggest of cats, it was the littlest of cats; it is the age of kibble, it is the age of wetties; it is the epoch of litter, it is the epoch of litter (and the epoch of litter, interminable litter.)

Two cages, four cats. In one cage, two older cats, sound asleep.

In the other, two tuxedos about six months old, most likely siblings, frolicking.

I made a squeak noise, stuck a finger into the cage, and the littler of the two came over and started licking it. The other one, bigger, held back.

“Oh, he likes me, he likes me!” I cheered, in my best Sally Field, and no I sooner said that than the other one came over and started licking, too. “They both like me!”

(It did not diminish my glee when I realized, later, that what they were licking was the residual grease from the croque-monsieur on my post-lunch fingers.)

After sleeping on it I was back at the shelter early the next morning, where the tuxedos were again playing together. The receptionist assured me they were adoptable, one female, one male, siblings, called Dot and Oreo. The adoption process was easier than I expected, and after filling out some papers and handing over some plastic cash, I became the slave of these two cats.

Who were, it turned out, both males.

The moniker of “Dot” confused the staff at the front desk, a moniker bestowed because of a small dot in the middle of the runt’s pink nose. The vet who vetted me (Oh! That’s why they’re called that!) as a potential adopter knew me from before and she assured me they were both males. No matter: those monikers were going by the wayside anyway, once the critters had enough time to engender a more likely and personal pair of names.

Enter Rory (left), short for Rorschach, and Smudge (right), short for nothing but because of all the smudges he bore, including one black nose centered in a white face, a smudge so large it gave him a Jimmy-Durante look. (He grew into it, fortunately; wow, did he ever grow into it!)

They’ve been home-owners, this one, for three years now, but they graciously allow us to share the space.