Many New Things

New sofa! (and ottoman)

Well. Today certainly has been full of excitement.

The long-anticipated sofa (with ottoman) finally arrived. It's very big and very comfy (if you like your sofas firm, which we do). I'm having some slight regrets about the lovely cotton velveteen espresso-colored upholstery we chose. At the time, it seemed charmingly decadent, but it would also appear to be a fuzz magnet. And Po's striped hairs show up beautifully on that dark brown. I guess we'll have to keep some lint rollers handy and wield them often.

We'll test the sleeper this weekend. The old one had a pretty decent mattress, for a sofa bed. We'll see what this one's like after several hours.

Next on the list of new things, Matt's work had this spare gas grill that they wanted, somewhat inexplicably, to get rid of. Well, we give used appliances a happy home here at Chez M, so he loaded that sucker up and carted it off. It's much larger and less rickety than our other second-hand gas grill, so that's nice. If anyone wants the older old one, let me know--otherwise it'll be hitting the freecycle.

And finally, most dramatically, we acquired a new cat.

This was rather a big step for us, as I only became a somewhat reluctant cat owner last year, and, since, moreover, our catspace is not big and is currently full of Po, who is large, and contains multitudes.

However.

She'd been hanging around the yard begging handouts for some weeks, and she's such a sweet little kitty with a Little Tramp moustache and the most plaintive meow ever. And, furthermore, there's some sort of cat disease going around Manchaca (deep south Austin, for you out-of-towners. Pronounced "man-chaack"--the last "a" is silent, for some reason.) We couldn't continue feeding her and petting her if there was a risk of passing something on to Po. But at the same time, we didn't want to abandon her to whatever-the-germ-is. She's very affectionate--if skittish--and so very skinny. We named her Isadora, which seemed like a good name for a wee skinny little cat with dainty paws. But she almost immediately became "Izzy."

We snagged her Sunday night and put her in the garage till we could take her to the vet, but our garage (French for "decrepit old shack") turned out to be anything but hermetic, and Izzy--who loathes confinement, we have discovered--escaped. To our surprise, she came around again last night (we grilled--Izzy positively cannot resist the smell of a cookout) and was gullible enough to come within snatching distance. We nabbed her again, this time putting her in a great big crate (the kind you put Rottweilers in). She mewed piteously, and we had to keep reminding ourselves that it was for her own good in the long run.

Today we took her in to the vet. They confirmed that she wasn't microchipped and hadn't been fixed, so between those facts and the absence of a collar and her general skinniness, we assume she's a bona fide stray. The vet gave her a clean bill of health (apparently, her ears are "gorgeous" from a veterinary perspective) except that the feline leukemia virus test came back indeterminate. We're to come back in months for further testing. Fortunately, Po's had his shots and boosters, so he should be okay. The vet also recommended feeding them separately and keeping them physically separated until they've had time to get used to each other.

Izzy: the new kitty on the new sofa

She's now curled up (shedding white hairs) on the new sofa, apparently happy as a clam. She's been assigned temporary sleeping quarters in the master bath while she and Po acclimate to one another. Tonight we'll discover whether or not she has an intuitive understanding of the litter box. She does seem to have grokked on to the come command, though she's not always terribly motivated to actually respond to it. (We've been training Po over the months--he's a wayward kitty, and it relieves my feelings to see him obey me in at least some things. He does come and sit beautifully. He does stay and go when he's not feeling naughty. And he does jump, down, and stand, but these are newer acquisitions to his vocabulary, and he's a little hesitant about them.)