House Guest

This is Uva (Spanish for Grape) though I have more often heard her called Kittycatcita by her affectionate owner and my friend, for whom I am kitty-cat-sitting this week.

My cats growing up were savvy beasts who supplemented their Meow Mix diet with whatever beasties they hunted out-of-doors. Mice, obviously, birds often, once a chipmunk, once a snake... They liked to roll in the dirt, and stay out all night, and would sometimes line their catch up on the sidewalk outside the front door, so we could compliment them on their prowess and total domination of 'Mousy-Land'. They were not particularly cuddly creatures, except the hermaphrodite one (odd, but true) who would sometimes try to hump your leg.

Uva, on the other hand, is the softest, cleanest, sweetest, most cuddly kitty I've ever met. (Though I heard she did make fast work of a bird not too long ago.) She doesn't use her claws when she she does that cat-kneading thing on you, and twice I woke in the night to find her using my arm as a pillow. The other 57 times I woke though, she was doing something less cuddly and decidedly more playful (read: noisy).

She battled it out with the cow rug, had a little nibble on a cardboard box (brought especially for that purpose), investigated every square inch of the bookshelf, re-arranged my attempt at a potted herb garden, and stripped my larger plants of some of their more unnecessary lower-hanging leaves.

The plants weren't doing particularly well anyway, perhaps they will thrive better on my second attempt.

Despite the mess, and the sleeping thing, I think we're going to be good buddies!