Average Jane Inches Closer To “Crazy Cat Lady”

Meet Dr. Jones. Well sure, his name is really Indiana Jones, but I find that it's much funnier to call a 2-pound, 13-ounce kitten Dr. Jones.

So now we have five cats, or as I like to think of it, three cats and two cats. After all, the two tribes never cross paths because three of them live in the main part of the house and the other two live in the recording studio.

We got the kitten because Trillian seemed lonely. Whenever we spent too much time downstairs, she would duck under the blinds in the studio's bay window and stare longingly across at us in the kitchen. That's just plain sad.

My friend, me, had a litter of kittens available and I'd already identified the brown tabby as my favorite. The weather had been preventing me from going to pick him up, so she brought him over on Saturday morning. I had a vet appointment scheduled already, so I got him checked out, vaccinated and tested for FIV within two hours of his arrival.

The first day, Trillian was having none of it and she did a lot of hissing and growling. When we weren't around to watch them, we kept the kitten in a wire kennel, which he trashed like a rock star's hotel room. Have I mentioned that Dr. Jones is talkative? My husband said he squalled so much the first night that he almost lost his voice.

The next day, a switch flipped for Trillian and she finally realized that she now had the world's most awesome toy at her disposal. They spent the entire day running around and chasing each other. Trillian wasn't ready to give the humans credit yet, though. She was rather standoffish to us and refused to play her usual fetch games.

Today is the fourth day and everything has settled down. The two cats are still playing up a storm, Trillian has warmed back up to us and Dr. Jones isn't making quite so much noise anymore. I haven't seen the two cats cuddling yet, but I imagine it's only a matter of time.

Dr. Jones is a friendly little thing, constantly getting on laps, climbing up backs and playing with hair. I have to be careful when he's sitting on me because he has a tendency to launch himself at my face unexpectedly. It's been a long time since I had a kitten this young and I'd forgotten how exuberant they can be.

So mock me if you will, but it's nice to have all the cats happy and content in their own little sections of the household. I think we're all going to benefit from our association with the intrepid Dr. Jones.