I’m embarrassed to admit that I have been away from my blog for so long. I created content for the site since my last post, but I just never published it. Several events transpired during my break, some good, then bad, then good again. I will bring this site current, but it may take a while to catch up with past pet anecdotes. Let’s start with something good that’s happened.

We were quite content with four cats. That was a number that seemed to work for us. The loss of Annie and Ozzy reduced our number to two for about a year, but missing the chaos that multiples can sometimes bring, we adopted two more cats a couple weeks apart (Barnabas and Vlad).

So much for even numbers. A family member found a friendly stray, did we want it? No room at the inn was our usual response, but for some reason we caved. I think it was in part because of the melancholy surrounding Moose’s kidney failure diagnosis. My husband and I needed something positive, an exciting hello when a tragic goodbye drew near.

Having agreed, I asked for a photo of the kitty, which showed it drinking water outside. A brown tabby with white feet. I’ve had two in the past; both Puff and Annie were brown tabbies. I hated to think of it outside in the summer heat with no permanent place to call home.

The cat rescuer traveled to where it was usually seen, and it voluntarily went into the cat carrier. The kitty arrived at our house on July 9, 2021. We never released it from the carrier, instead we went right to the pet urgent care down the street to check for a microchip. There was no sense in falling in love with someone else’s pet. A scan failed to find a chip. Kitty wasn’t part of a colony, as neither ear was tipped. I secretly hoped kitty would be a female I could name Lizzie. We only have one female; the others are males. No such luck. Kitty was an unneutered male with claws. They weren’t able to do any vetting of the kitty, but our normal vet was able to squeeze us in that night.

Kitty was named Bram on the way to the vet, in keeping with the vampire-themed names of two of our other cats. He was very good at the vet’s office. Bram was swept again for the presence of a microchip and still none was found. It turned out that he was a young man of 10-11 months, or a teenage kitten.

Bram had little flea dirt on him, but he did have ear mites, so I was given a topical to treat them along with any other parasite or worm he could have. (I think he may have been expelling something in the days that followed, so it was good that he had the medicine). He tested negative for feline AIDS and leukemia, so he was safe to bring home and keep. Bram will have to be kept isolated from the rest of the menagerie for two weeks, and if there are no signs of anything upper respiratory or otherwise unusual going on, he can begin the integration process. He also received a rabies shot during his visit. Welcome to your new life Bram!