Welcome Nyla

Two weeks ago today, Steven left us. During the last few days he was with us, we would talk to him gently, telling him how much we loved him, how he was always a good cat, and not to fear leaving us because all of us - namely me, Anne Marie, and Meredith - would be all right.  And oh yeah, just one more thing, Steven: could you, if it’s not too much trouble and not to put pressure on you, send us another kitty to love and cherish like we loved you.

We believe Steven fulfilled our last request. On Sunday, we brought home a five-year-old brown tabby named Nyla from our local shelter, Kitty Cottage. She is healthy, active, has a good appetite, is very talkative, is a lap cat, and she is beautiful.

Nyla spent the better part of her first day with us making endless laps around all three floors of our house, getting acquainted with where everything was. Litter box in the basement, food and water dishes on the main floor, beds and lots of comfy places to nap on the second floor; Nyla’s big sister Meredith welcomed the new addition to our family with open paws.

Okay, that last sentence is a total, bald-faced lie. Actually, Meredith laid on one of our beds, paws tucked under her, snarling, hissing, and emitting a low guttural growl that I would never imagine coming from a 11 year-old female cat. I’ll put it this way: the pitch of her growls was so low that they would’ve made Thurl Ravenscroft jealous.  

That pretty much summarizes Nyla’s first day in her forever home.

Nyla has big paws to fill in her new home. She not only has to be a playful roommate to our cranky dowager Meredith, but she also has to take Steven’s place as my close companion. She needs to be willing to curl up in my lap and/or next to me in bed. I figured it would at least be a few weeks before she and I would settle into this routine.

I was wrong. Nyla jumped up on our easy chair and settled on my chest for a round of petting and head scratches. Her foster owner, a nice gentleman by the name of Alan who we met at Kitty Cottage, had warned us that she likes to lie on men’s chests. In this regard, Nyla did not disappoint me, and she has quickly become “my” cat. In just three days, she has become more than a close companion; she is my shadow.

Happily, Meredith has gotten over her snit, and has found it prudent to co-exist in the same room as Nyla. I can only guess that Meredith did this out of necessity. She would have to come down to the main floor to eat, drink, and use her litter box eventually. 

Of course, we could have catered to Meredith’s every need and moved food and water to the bedroom, thereby ruling out the possibility of trying to make peace with the new intruder in “her” house. Unfortunately, we only put a water dish upstairs and did not even attempt to move the food dish upstairs. Moving the litter box was never discussed; humans do have their limits and we draw the line at installing a cat toilet in one of our bedrooms. The mere thought of our olfactory sense being assaulted in the midst of a good night’s slumber is more than we can bear.

I can only imagine that Meredith and Nyla’s second day together - a Monday when the staff, namely Anne Marie and I, had to go to work - was a quiet day of getting to know each other. Indeed, when Anne Marie came home that night, she actually saw them touch noses. This was an endearing gesture on Meredith’s part. I can only imagine that she laid down some ground rules for Nyla’s benefit: “Okay, little sister, here’s the kitty scoop. I’ve got seniority, so what I say goes. Don’t chase me; I’ll chase you and we’ll get along fine. You got that, purr fiend?”

This reminds me, I need to lay down some ground rules myself, even though I know these rules will be ignored. After all, the cats rule the house. I am merely a member of their staff.

Listen up Nyla, here are some rules of the house that you’ll need to know. These are not all of the rules of the house, only the ones I can think of right now. More will come later as I think of them.

Breakfast will be served when the staff decides to wake up. There will be no time window - such as anytime between midnight and 6a - available to you to wake your humans up for a meal. Dinner will be served whenever your humans get home from earning the money they need to keep you in kibbles and litter.

Bird watching will not be discouraged. However, we would like you to be mindful not to soil the window panes themselves as you chatter, wag your tail, and drool at the sight of your fine-feathered friends. We particularly do not want to see trails of cat snot smeared on our nice $1500 weather-seal, two-paned windows. They were designed and installed to keep all of us warm and to take advantage of a weather-proofing, energy saving tax write-off. They were never intended to be a handkerchief for a pair of kitties.

Last rule for now: eat, drink, nap, litter your box, and be merry! Nyla, this is where you’ll be loved and cherished I hope for years to come. Welcome home, beautiful girl! 

(Thank you for reading!)