Our newest family member

I meant to post this as part of the "Friday Cat Blogging" trend but the place where I store my photo files seems to have died (again!). So I had to establish a new place for the photos.


This is Zaphod. I award extra points for folks who catch the reference although that's costing me a LOT in points. It's not nearly as obscure as I thought. Which is kind of cool actually.

Zaphod is a long hair (sigh, not my choice. My two ladies picked her out and didn't check) all black kitten. I knew I was in trouble the day I picked her up. She was climbing the inside of the cage at the SPCA. Then when she was safely in her cat carrier on the way home she attempted to tear her way OUT of the cardboard carrier. No piteous mewings, no anguished yowlings. Just claws and teeth and full length extensions of paw and limb through the air holes looking for somethig to grab.

Since she's gotten home she's displayed all the usual kitten energy. Plus an absolute mania for climbing. Not just the usual though. She climbs like a lumberjack, wrapping her front paws around the newel posts of the stairs or even the door frames and kicking her way up. She's gotten well over five feet up the door frame several times. I have no idea where she thinks she's going. Fortunately she likes the scratching post I built for her (pretty spiffy if I do say so myself. Hand wound with 100 feet of sisal rope)

Our senior cat Amidala is less than amused by all this energy. Ami never had much of a kitten's sense of whimsey even when she was a kitten. Now she's a grumpy old dowager barely tolerating this tasmanian devil of activity. But no blood. Ami growls and swats when Zee gets too much for her. They've made peace at the food bowl so that's good.

It keeps life interesting for us all. Zee likes to announce her joy of life to me by rubbing, purring and licking my face each morning. Usually around 4 AM. I may be the one to draw blood.

Oh and a note on black cats. Black cats are a tradition in my family started by my father. We only had black cats all the years I grew up. They remain my favorite. I was very disappointed when we adopted our last two because there were none to be had at the SPCA.