CatEcumen the Ecumenical Cat

This had been the kitten's scheduled spay-day, but since her digestive problems continue, I didn't think that she was in good enough shape for surgery yet, so we postponed the spay for two weeks. Her latest new food, Taste of the Wild grain-free, seems to be helping somewhat - she has put on a bit of weight, and her coat feels silkier to the touch - but it hasn't fully resolved the problem.

This morning the kitten particularly impressed me with what seemed to be logical thinking from a cat's point of view. She was watching me scooping out the litterbox. With clumping litter, I use little plastic poop-disposal bags. After observing what I was doing for awhile, she came up next to me, squatted and pooped right directly on a plastic bag. I guess she figured she was helping me cut out the middle step by delivering right to the destination! I gently picked her up and put her back into the litter box to finish her business. I hope she got the message, but I couldn't scold her for what probably seemed to her like a very helpful thing to do.

Dear kitten: This is MY keyboard. I type words on it. I know that you find it to be a nice, warm place for you to take a nap. I have a keyboard blocker so that you can do that, when I'm NOT using it. However, I am using it now. MINE.

So, her name is McKenzie, and she is verified to be a female, and she's definitely a scrappy one. She has already figured out how to jump to the top of a baby safety gate, even though she's probably no more than seven weeks old. On the way back from the vet, she certainly made her displeasure known about all those assaults upon her dignity.

She's generally healthy, although she will need routine treatment for ear mites and worms, but nothing out of the ordinary. We're getting her on a schedule for all the vaccinations, etc., under the Banfield plan.

Right now she's sleeping near the top of the cat tree. :-)

Playing with a kitten really is like a form of prayer - not worshipping the kitten, but experiencing the awe of such a beautiful and perfect creation, and being grateful for the divine creative force which brought such perfection into being, a force which I choose to call God.

On a more mundane level, I'm working on cleaning the kitten's ears (ear mites!) and re-discovering the obvious fact of how differently puppies and kittens play, and why they should have different toys. (A kitten will bat a ball around the floor with its paw; a dog will immediately bite into the ball.)

I'm thinking of "McKenzie" as a possible permanent name for this kitten. "Alley-Oop" or "Alley-Oops" is really just a temporary placeholder name until we think of something better. I'll need to settle on at least a working name for tomorrow when I set up the kitten's Banfield account.

(This should now be cross-posting to "catecumen" at LJ, formerly "wandering_cat")

I had forgotten that something so tiny can be so perfect.