New Addition to the Family

It has been a difficult week. Everything began on Wednesday, August 29. We were supposed to take a friend’s cat. He has been traveling a lot, and the poor cat was left alone in the house. Douglas and I were attached to the cat. Every time that we would visit, Richard would sit on our laps for hours, purring away. We were happy that Richard would be coming to live with us. I have wanted a cat that would cuddle more than Crème.

As soon as Richard arrived, I knew that something was wrong. He was so thin. Shortly after his arrival, he started choking. Kahlua was concerned and immediately ran to his side. Douglas tried to call our vet, but they were already closed. He called another service, but they referred us to a vet that was over a half hour away. We knew by then that we did not have that much time. In the meantime, Richard was in even greater distress, and Douglas started performing CPR. I got online and found an emergency 24-hour veterinary service that was close to our house. I called as we rushed Richard into the truck, and we started driving. Douglas continued CPR even though Richard went limp shortly after we pulled out of the driveway. Douglas turned to me and said, “We lost him.” We were both close to tears at that point.

The drive to the vet seemed to take an hour, although I am sure that it was only about 10-15 minutes. Douglas continued CPR the entire time. When we got there, he ran in with Richard as I parked the truck, but it was too late. At that point we needed to call our friend to let him know that Richard was dead and ask what he wanted us to do with the body.

I hardly slept at all that night. I just kept picturing poor Richard’s inert little body as he lay on the metal table in the examining room. On Thursday, I received some bad news from school, and on Friday I learned that my father was scheduled for open heart surgery. To say that it was a bad week would be an understatement. I desperately needed something good in my life.

On Saturday, when Douglas got home from work, I asked him to accompany me to the local SPCA. We were looking for a black male cat, but the only one there did not seem that interested in us. However, there was a little black and white kitten that was thrilled to see us. He curled right up against me and started to purr. I decided that he was the one that I wanted. We filled out the paperwork and brought him home.

He was exhausted when we arrived at the house and fell asleep on my lap immediately. He did not even mind that Kahlua was lying on the couch next to us. At one point the kitten was sleeping with his head resting on Kahlua’s back. Kahlua did not mind, but Crème was not happy about his presence.

That night he slept on my head or Douglas’ head the entire night. At that point, we were not sure what his name would be. Douglas has the tradition of naming his animals after alcoholic drinks. That is why we currently have Kahlua and Crème de Menthe. I was debating between Coquito, a Puerto Rican Christmas drink, or Ponche Crema, a Venezuelan Christmas drink.

By morning, I had decided that his name would be Ponche Crema or Ponche. That was the name that I was using more often. I also liked that it was related to Venezuela, my second home and to Crème. At that point, I just had to convince Crème that Ponche could be her friend.

Crème was angry when we brought the kitten home. She continuously voiced her displeasure over our decision to bring home a strange animal. She assured us that she would never love him or forgive us for our offences. She repeatedly attacked poor Ponche, but she never hurt him. He was intimidated but not scared enough to run away or hide.

Ponche has proven himself to be a loving and amusing addition to the family. He sleeps curled up against us every night. He also makes us laugh with his antics. He was exactly what I needed through this difficult week.

Kahlua has been very patient with Ponche. At first, the kitten is a little afraid of Kahlua no matter how gentle she is with him. He would hiss and swat at her when she tried to approach him. Therefore, I decided to put him in a basket so that Kahlua could introduce herself without him running away. She is so calm that I was not worried about him at all.

While Kahlua and Ponche were getting acquainted, Crème decided to investigate. As much as she insists that she hates the little kitten, she never wants to be very far from him. She swatted at him through the basket a couple of times, but the were only halfhearted little swipes that never made contact.

After a couple of minutes, I took Ponche out of the basket and allowed him to interact. He stood his ground, even after Crème swiped at him again.

On Tuesday, Ponche learned how to climb up the jungle gym. The problem is that he does not know how to climb down. He sits up there and screams until I go and take him down.

At one point he was determined to climb from one perch to another. I was not sure why he was so determined to get over there until I realized that Crème was on top of the china cabinet. She soon joined him on the perch.

Everything was good until Crème suddenly attacked, and I had to go rescue Ponche.

Crème is still mad at us, but she is slowly coming around. She and Ponche love playing together. Crème refuses to forgive us, but she is much more gentle with him than she was in the beginning. Now they wrestle and chase each other around, but it is obviously in play. I just hope that she will warm back up with us soon.

In fact, last night Crème took the huge step of finally coming back into our bed for the first time since the kitten arrived. She has always preferred to sleep on the rug beside the bed, but she used to spend some time with us in bed before going down. Once Ponce came to live with us, she had refused to snuggle with us at all and when placed on the bed would give us a disdainful look and immediately jump down. To see her settling in on the bed with the kitten and with us gives me hope that our pardon cannot be long in coming.

In the meantime, we love our newest son. He came to live with us during a low point, but things have already turned around. We look forward to a long life with him and our girls.

Happy Homemaking!

Update: Crème is on my lap for the first time since Ponche arrived on Saturday. He is curled up against Kahlua. I think think that we are going to be a happy family.