Friday, August 18, 2006

Gandalf


*Note to Self: Do not visit friend with foster kitten.
* 2nd Note to Self: Do not pick up and play with said foster kitten.

Well, lookie here!

GANDALF!

Welcome Little Dude!

He is a 12 week old little kitten we (although at this time Atticus and Mae are suitably unimpressed I forged their names on the adoption papers) adopted from a wonderful organization here in Toronto - the Annex Cat Rescue.

At this time, his big brother and sister are just not gettin' it.


Mae is watching from afar. I think she's starting to be all - "great, I'm the middle child now", although she should be - "hey, I'm no longer the youngest...cool."










Atticus has his WT...? look on his face. He's been hilarious - I think he'll come around before Mae does, he's so good natured.

He's actually a bit taken aback, and although he may deny it, afraid of wee Gandalf! He'll get hissed and growled at by Gandalf, and is totally perplexed by it.

"Huh? Wha...? Uh, *hiss back*?"

There was a cute little moment this morning when they touched noses. Then Gandalf remembered - hey, wait a minute, I'm not supposed to be cool with you just yet... *hiss!*.

Atticus and Mae just aren't getting it yet. But, as I mentioned both are very good natured, and pretty easy-going. This is just the sizing up stage (I hope). Anyone out in knitting land have any experience with bringing a new kitty to live with adult cats? How long roughly 'til they stop hissing and growling at each other?

When Mae was a baby and came to live with us, Atticus was pretty much the way he is now - curious. He was very gentle and patient with her. They did have their hissing matches, but that was a while ago, and I seem to remember it didn't go on for too long. Still, it would be nice to hear of others' experiences.

Gandalf was the "runt" of his litter, yet now that he's out of his foster home, he's showing that he's really not afraid to take on anything. He also has these very un-catlike, mysterious little mannerisms. When he lies down, he actually "claps" his front paws together! It's too cute, I've never seen that before. He's very sweet - he fell asleep last night with his paw on my arm and his head on my hand. Awwww! The name "Gandalf" suits him.

Hey, it just occured to me that Chaos now has a real-live Mini-Me!

Knitting ('cause this is a knitting blog after all!)

Lorraine was mentioning about having a bit of knitting ennui of late... I was in that funk last week - could barely do a round on Ophelia's arm without messing up. I have 100 stitches, and yet each round is taking about as long as a round for the body would take! I then moved on to the Seaweed Scarf - which is going really well, btw (!) - and I messed up pretty much every repeat. I was even dropping stitches when I tried to work on Western Seas...*sigh*. I suppose it's not ennui as much as being a space knitting cadet. All thumbs...

Atticus would like me to thank you all for all your kind comments and cyber-noogies! Although he loves being the centre of attention, he's not likely to want to go through and overnighter at the V-E-T to get them.

He's not going to like Saturday morning when he heads back for his checkup...


I leave you with this little gem.

Atticus and Gandalf, sizing each other up.









"Dude. Man, you're small. Um, that's my spot, by the way..."

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you may need a different note to self taking system. :o)

He's loverly. Things'll probably settle down with the siblings in within a week.

Marina said...

Awww, what a cutie pie!

Sorry, I can only tell you about introducing an oversized pup to an older cat and dog. But then again, it really depends on their personalities.

Chris said...

I thought of the "mini-me" things as soon as I saw that first picture!! I love Gandalf. So cute. And the un-catlike thing? That reminds me of a certain cat of my acquaintance...

mrspao said...

How sweet is Gandalf! I know about looking at cute strays and not actually letting go of them.

Marji said...

I swear I'm the only blogging knitter that doesn't have cats! I would think they'll get it all sorted out though. YOu and Lorraine can just keep the ennui up there north of the border. Looks like you'll have to get to Stitches next year for a fix of motivation and inspiration.

Cynthia said...

Gandalf is totally adorable. It usually only takes a few days for everyone to settle down. I've never had anyone not fit in after a week or so.

Anonymous said...

Mia was a kitten when introduced two the two older ones. It took about two weeks for them to let her know she was in THEIR house. After about a month they had their boundaries established and you would have never known Mia was the new one except for the fact that she was still a kitten. Gandalf is so cute!! Don't you wish they could stay kittens forever?

Carrie K said...

Kitten!! He's so cute! And so are his older siblings. I love that wary look Mae is shooting him. "What? He's still here. Why? Why, why, why...."

No help here, I've mostly had only cats.

Ummm, what was the knitting content? Oh, space cadet knitting. I suffer greatly from that but I soldier on. I just knit a 8 row cable and and a 4 row cable on my 6 row cable. It's a design feature.

Jeanne said...

What a cutie! Makes me want to run out and get a kitten. We had three adult cats last year when we got a kitten - it took a few weeks for the hissing to stop. Of course, it didn't help when the kitten was jumping on them when they slept...

Anonymous said...

My gawd, the cuteness!!! I'm sure he'll be getting along with the others in no time!

Anonymous said...

What can I say....too cute!