Where do I start with Pippi? She’s got many nicknames: Poopie, Poopitar, Poopula. Usually when we foster we get to name the kittens, but her batch came named and quite frankly Pippi suits her, she’s a Pip.
We’ve been told that cats don’t do things out of spite and we’re giving her too much credit when we say she does. But I’ve seen her watch me clean out the litter box, then minutes later she goes down and does her business NEXT to the clean box. At first we thought she preferred a clean box but I can tell you that’s not the problem. She leaves us gifts when she’s displeased, like if we’ve gone out for an extended time. Now I realize it’s possible we are reading too much into this, but she has more of a tendency to leave her mark when we’re gone too much.
When we were fostering her, her sister and her brothers we weren’t sure who was doing their business next to the box. As the boys got bigger, got neutered and went up for adoption we were able to narrow it down through a process of elimination. We actually thought it was both of the girls, turns out it was just her. They had to disclose this fact to potential adopters, that’s why she just sat there at the shelter.
The shelter is closed Sunday & Monday and we’re such suckers we didn’t like leaving her all alone those two days. Ok, she wasn’t all alone, they do come in and clean and feed everyone. It’s not the same as being WITH us though. The shelter supervisor let us bring her home on the weekends, which in retrospect was probably a bad idea. She decided this was her home, she was a perfect angel here. At the shelter she was a terror. After her sister got adopted they tried to put another kitten in the cage with her so she’d have company. Yeah, she wasn’t having that….she growled and hissed at the poor thing. She also climbed the sides of the cage and CRIED all day long, so much so that the workers were sick of her. It got worse when we came in, she got WILD and even louder. After about a month of this routine Bob joked with the shelter manager, saying “soon you’ll be paying US to take her off your hands”. A little while later we were out with the dogs and the shelter manager came out and said “Do you want her? If you do you can have her, get her OUT of here. We’ll update her shots and you can have her”. I’m sure we are giving her far too much credit but I honestly believe that’s what she wanted all along.
If we hadn’t raised her I’d say some of her behavior problems are a result of a rough “kittenhood” or a bad mother. We have had her since she was about 2 ½ - 3 weeks old so I know that’s not the case, she’s just a punk. If you pick her up and she doesn’t wish to be held she growls at you. Actually she starts off whining, works up to a growl, then she’ll try to bite. She doesn’t bite hard, she’s never broken the skin but you know she doesn’t want to be held. It’s pretty funny when this little cat starts growling at you, we find it so entertaining that we hold her until she gets worked up into a tizzy. I know, we’re mean but it’s funny. She’s over a year now so it’s pretty safe to say she’s full grown and she weighs 9 pounds.
Pippi’s other claim to fame is her fascination with knocking things off counters and dressers. Cats don’t understand the concept of sleeping in or weekends, they just have an internal clock that tells them it’s time for breakfast. Since we get up early during the week (4:30-5:00AM) the latest they will ever let me sleep on the weekends is 5. Around 4:15 Pippi starts knocking stuff off my nightstand. She starts with my water bottle, I try to ignore her. She then moves to the actual alarm clock which always wakes me up. I’ve taken almost everything off my dresser because she’s knocked everything off. We lost the remote because she knocked it off and kicked it under the dresser. Pretty much anything is fair game, empty boxes, pens, silverware, bottles, cans, mail, magazines, etc. It’s REALLY annoying and I swear she knows it. Another fun thing that Pippi likes to do is run across the bed early in the morning or sometimes she’ll wrestle with Jack or Hurley. It’s always on my side of the bed because Bob sleeps through everything. Sometimes I have scratches on my hands from her running across me. Oh and I can’t forget the CRYING, good grief. She’s small and yet she has a set of lungs. She’ll stand at the top of the stairs CRYING like someone is torturing her.
Pippi isn’t all bad she can be very sweet when she wants to. She follows me around, she sleeps with me and she’ll sleep on my lap. She was definitely meant to be a part of our family; she fits right in with Jack. It’s hard for me to imagine life without Pippi.
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