Room for More

It was not my intention to bring in more cats, despite my new landlady’s acquiescence. Nonetheless, here one is. Her name is Xandria. That’s her, looking like a failed experiment in making a complete cat.

She is estimated to be about four months old, to judge by the presence of her adult teeth. She is, however, quite small and light of weight for her age (1.25 kilograms (2.75 pounds)). She was found by a rescue-group member along the side of the highway; that stretch of road has yielded its share of abandoned kittens over the years. Xandria was full of worms, which may have sapped much of the nutrition that should have gone to building a bigger kitten.

Xandria has lived in another foster-home for a few weeks and, though that home is a good and beneficial residence for the group’s cats, the space available for new arrivals is restricted. I now have as many as I ever have – and the last time I had seven, it was a temporary measure, lasting no more than a week – but there is room for them all, and it can be well utilised by an energetic kitten – though, as I write this, Xandria is snoozing: it was a long and active day for the little one.

She has been sniffed at by at least three of the adult cats here and, while there has been some growling, it has not amounted to what is traded among the Cosy Cabin’s grown-ups. Indigo, in particular, has been admirably restrained in her reaction. Once Xan wakes refreshed and rambunctious, that may change.

However, as they used to say in the television commercials of my youth, ‘But wait: there’s more!’…