we have a visitor. yesterday, saxy found a little blue-gray stray kitten. it's friendly and seems well fed, so we think it was recently dumped in the area. my oldest took it to the house where we thought it might live and an adult there said it wasn't theirs. the last time we think we saw this little one, a child at the same house claimed it. either the child wasn't supposed to claim it, it's not the same kitten, or they've decided not to keep it. i am pretty sure it's the same, the coloration is the same and the size is about right for the amount of time we're looking at since we've seen it last. so, we've kept the kitten with us tonight. we can't keep it too much longer though as we're only allowed to have one pet and we already have 2 violations on animals. the next one will get us thrown out. so we're looking for a home for the baby, but the pound is a possibility, unfortunately.

gypsy (who isn't a pet since she's a working animal) is curious about the visitor, but otherwise could care less. the kitten wasn't sure, however, of what to make of gypsy. i think the end consensus was that gypsy is big, doesn't smell like a cat, and should be avoided because she twitches when sniffed. ;)

roro, on the other hand, is quite put out that this little invader is in her home. no major fights as of yet, but roro, who has never done so before, has discovered how to hiss. what's really funny about it is she snorts either before or after. seriously. the first time we heard her, we both burst out laughing. i mean try to imagine this: *snort* hissssssssssssssss. hisssssssssssssss *snort*. sometimes she doesn't snort at all, sometimes it's a quiet snort, frequently it's a loud snort. i've never had a cat snort before! and she follows the little one around, hissing, growling, and snorting. if she can't see it, she goes looking for it. once she finds it, she plants herself to stare at it. occasionally she approaches it and hisses, snorts, and bats at it, but for the most part she seems content to hiss from afar.

at first the kitten avoided ro and found places to hide in whenever she approached in her irritated way, but now she just stares and occasionally growls then runs for cover. it has a quiet little growl, but a big, loud purr. saxy's chair and one of my bookshelves still seem to be its favorite places to go when threatened. or my neck/chest, which it also likes to sleep on.

saxy is leaving the care of the little kitten to me. this is probably a bad idea as i think the kitten is adorable. but roro long ago claimed him as her human, and we'd really rather not add insult to injury by having him pay too much attention to the little one. me, on the other hand, she's always had a less tolerant view of, so there's no loss if i pay attention to another cat. well, other than the fact that this little alien has invaded her house.

they're almost as bad as the children. they just haven't broken out into full fight mode yet. but we're waiting for it.