So we accidentally adopted a spaz for a kitten.
We love her lots, but she's her own unique individual.
We were told that she was a stray until a woman took her in for a month or so while Georgia got put into PAWS system... it's a full system, so she was lucky she got to stay with her temporary family for a while. We were told when we met her that Georgia spent the entire time in the adoption center in the litter box. When we met her, she stepped right out to me, and when Ryan picked her up, you could see the comfort in her entire body. She was totally ours from the get-go.
As soon as we got her home, we knew that she was either incredibly smart or was not a stray. She knew our kitchen immediately, and joins us there when we cook... to beg. She also knows to be gentle with our hands when she plays, and you can almost feel her holding back her energy not to hurt us.
For the first four weeks after we adopted her, she woke us up between 3:30 and 4:30 AM EVERY SINGLE DAY. She was killing me. Then, she was touched by something and now miraculously she sleeps through the night (or close enough).
She's perpetually clean, which I tremendously appreciate, but she also likes to make sure the litter is out from between her foot pads... even at 2:00 in the morning. Clearly, I'm sound-sensitive but, to be fair, she's as anal retentive as I am.
As I mentioned before, Georgia is a Siamese mix, but her "meow" is ALL Siamese. This means that her talking is incessant, but I truly don't mind that. What gets me is her lonely meow, which she does if she walks out of the room. I think she forgets we're right there. As a result, we keep her in the bedroom with us overnight, so we don't repeat past "night-time alarms". We have been keeping our bedroom door closed so she stays with us. She does GREAT with this.
However, we discovered the amazing draft that comes through our room when we leave the door open. For two or three nights, we used the box our TV came in, which worked well, but looked, well... bad, and was bulky. We tried our laundry basket for one night, but let's just say that we experienced a "wake-up call" at 4 AM. No go.
So we bought one of the older model baby gates for her. I think she could scale it, but we may never find out. It freaks her out so much that she won't go within 5 feet of that thing. Excellent...
Georgia has two moods: playful and asleep. I did not grow up with animals that bit as a form of play. I now understand how Georgia sees her play as a trusting activity with us, but she knew from day one when she was playing with our hands to be VERY careful. She does get out of control every once in a while, and she gets corrected. She almost immediately knows what she's done wrong, and goes away to mope for a while. Then she's happy to play again. And we are too.
When she gets too jacked up, she has some odd habits:
- She plays with her toys with incredible energy, but almost seems self-conscious about "getting caught" doing it. She walks off casually like she was too cool for it to begin with.
- Georgia has a MEAN vertical. She randomly jumps at spots on the wall, like she sees a fly--but there isn't one.
- She has found my hair ties as her new favorite toy when she gets up early in the mornings... good thing I keep them on the headboard for me (and her now, too).
- She will run through the apartment like she's got somewhere to be. When she does it, though, she sounds like a dog whose claws need clipped.... "schritch, schritch, schritch". I'm shocked we don't have claw marks on the floors. I think the hardwood flooring is resilient, though :)
So there's a look into the life of our Georgia Cat... I think her only complaint would be that we pick her up too much. She clearly wasn't held enough as a kitten. She likes when we hold her, but can't fight the urge to run away at the earliest opportunity.
A note about PAWS: Proving Animals are Worth Saving (PAWS) is a Chicago no-kill organization who has worked to reduce the number of animals destroyed for simply not having a home. They have, in their 12 years in existence, reduced the number of animals destroyed in the city; in 1998, over 40,000 animals were destroyed annually. In 2008, that number was just over 19,000. As someone who volunteered for the organization, the people employed by PAWS and those of us who volunteer are committed to not only finding A home, but THE RIGHT home for all animals that come through the adoption center's doors. If you live in Chicago, please consider volunteering for, contributing to, or adopting from PAWS. For more information, visit their website.
