Introducing: Aymeric Leonard Bitingway Vardy

Hi! It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, am I right?

Almost two weeks ago, we adopted a kitten. I wasn’t really looking for one, but I saw this picture posted and it got stuck in my heart:

This kitten was the only feline in the shelter. He looked terrified, and his face has obviously seen better days. I may have set his image on the desktop of one of my computers, and I kept checking back to see if he’d been adopted. Two weeks passed and Nicole, being who she is, didn’t ask so much as “drove me to the shelter to meet him.”

He was, as you might imagine, scared. His little steel cage was across from all the dogs, most of which were big and all of which were loud. The “meet” room was even closer to the dogs which seems like a design issue. Anyway, he let me pet him, but he’d hid behind me whenever the dogs got riled up. I finally got a little quiet time and managed to shake my hand around in a way that got him up on his back legs in the “I am fierce and will pounce on you!” pose.

So, yeah, as if there was any doubt, the decision was made. I couldn’t take him home immediately as he needed to be neutered before they would allow an adoption. Sorry, little friend, but it’s for the best. I panicked several times over the next couple of days, worrying about what might happen (or if someone else would beat me to the punch; it’s first-come, first-serve at the shelter). A week ago last Friday, he came home with us.

Now is a good time to mention that we do have two other cats: Red Velvet and Ramza. Red Velvet is 12 or so, and she really can’t stand active attention from other cats (she does like snuggling up to them). Ramza came to us from the same shelter as Aymeric about 15 months ago, and he terrorized poor Red Velvet. What would happen when we introduced a kitten into the mix?

Magic, that’s what.

Ramza took to Aymeric (who can also be called “Leo” for short; cats must have numerous names), playing with him, grooming him, letting him have the first crack at fresh food, and basically being the big brother he was (apparently) born to be. He loves the kitten, and the kitten is obsessed with him. As for Red Velvet? She’s left alone like she wants to be. She’s still a little prickly when the kitten gets too close, but by and large, couldn’t have asked for a smoother introduction.

It was not, however, the fastest introduction. Unlike Ramza, Aymeric had no litter-mates. He’d been feral and then caged by himself. I kept him in my office for his first week here, allowing the senior kitties to visit on occasion. Ramza played with him; Red Velvet ate his food. Aymeric was playful from the start, but very suspicious of noses, anything tall, and too many hands at once.

That was then. Things have changed over the last week and a half.

At first he was spending all his time in the office. Then, we started leaving the door open during the day so he could get out and wander around. It turns out he really likes being under our bed, which isn’t ideal, but Ramza loves to go there with him, so we roll with it. Then he started exploring the rest of the house, and finally, we stopped putting him up when we went to bed.

He’s very confident, although he still prefers to have something over his head sometimes. He loves loves loves to sleep on me or right next to me. More often than not, when he’s sleeping, I find him asleep on my pillow. He purrs. He purrs a lot. He apparently has a very large “glockulum” which is what we have arbitrarily named cats’ organ-of-purring.

The only downside is that yesterday I tested positive for the ‘rona. First time for me. And yes, you can pass it from humans to cats and especially kittens. So, I’m quarantining myself in the back of the house by myself and missing my wife and kitten terribly. Terrible timing, as if there was a “good” time to get COVID.

OK, y’all have been good and patiently read my story, so here’s what you really came for: Pictures!