You knew this had to happen. It was only a matter of time before the gaping energy hole that was created when Cooper changed forms became too much for all of us to handle and we had to remedy that. We had four delightful, playful, loving buddies, but there was still something missing. A je ne sais quoi, as the French would say; some imperceptible, unnamable thing that seemed to be absent in our house after Cooper left. The energy level had definitely shifted. It became much more sedate and orderly.
Enter the kitten.
Nigel came into our lives from El Refugio, an animal shelter in Uvita, in the middle of December, a little over a week before I was scheduled to get on a plane to head to the U.S. to spend the holidays with (the other half of) my family. If Cooper had been a walking, talking Category 2 hurricane on a regular basis, the kitten kicked it up a notch, at least to a Cat 3. There was intense playing. There was chasing. There was batting at one’s elders while they tried to sleep and a good bit of screen-climbing on the porch. There was intense studying of high places and gauging of just how much “oomph” would be required to leap up to the top of ______(fill in the blank). (Extra points if you could cause any other objects on the top of _______ to come clattering to the floor.)
Just your average run-of-the-mill kitten mayhem.
Surprisingly, the older four are taking a very philosophical approach to his presence. He has successfully “played” with Zelda some; evenings and early mornings are filled with the sound of him and Maynard chasing each other joyfully around the house; and even Stella manages not to run and hide when he wants to sit close to her. Lionel is currently the only holdout. I think Lionel secretly hoped he would one day be Alpha, and while Lionel is indeed a very nice cat and a very loving one with his people, Lionel was not born to lead, and I say that in the kindest, most affectionate way possible. He tends to lean towards autocracy, which, as you might imagine, goes over not so well with a bunch of independent-minded cats.
All of this is to say that Lionel seems unamused by the newest member of his family, perhaps suspecting that this furry cyclone may be the Kitten Who Would Be King, and any pretenses he previously had for the throne are now effectively null and void. Hopefully he will get over it. There are moments when he accepts the fact that a sunny nap he was enjoying on the porch has suddenly been marred by the sudden existence of a kitten on his head. More often, it results in Lionel running back to the safety of the bedroom, where he will lick his wounded pride and sullenly plot his ever more unlikely ascendance.
Baby Nigel bears a resemblance to our beloved Coopie, and he shares many personality traits with him as well. I’ve already mentioned the Lean Mean Playing Machine part, but there are other parts, too. He seemed to gravitate toward Cooper’s favorite two sleeping spots in the house–one on top of the TV stand, and the other a tiny box on the breakfast bar that Cooper used to occupy, but that didn’t actually fit him. He does the same playing “forward roll” maneuver that Cooper used to regularly pull, and he delights in nipping at Sean’s forearms (or ankles, or toes, or knees…) as a form of affection.
It’s Cooper’s patience that seems the most obvious similarity, though. Long-time blog readers may remember how Cooper convinced Zelda they should be friends–by camping out on the level below her on our 7-foot kitty tree in Asheville and “sleeping” there until it desensitized her into accepting him. Nigel does the same thing, sitting either on the kitty tree or next to another cat, quietly staring off into the middle distance as if their presence wasn’t really on his radar at all. (“Don’t mind me, I’m just a helpless, sweet little kitten that I’m sure you will come to love if I just sit here quietly long enough.”) (“P.S. If that doesn’t work, I’ll chase you around and nip your hindquarters.”)
Bottom line is, not every cat in the house is 100% convinced that they love him yet. But what is certain is that Sean and I love him to pieces already, and that’s a pretty good start.
