After I brought Moblin home, that was supposed to be it…the end. Of course, it couldn’t be the end, right? If it were, there wouldn’t be a story to tell. Navi literally picked us to be her pet parents. My husband and I try to do what we can to stay healthy. Part of that is taking daily walks. On one of those walks, we heard a little meow, and went to investigate. We found a tiny grey kitten hanging off of our (empty) neighbor’s garden wall. She seemed to have gotten her claws stuck in the ivy and couldn’t get free. My husband helped her get her claws free, and set her down. We finished our walk and went home.
My husband was working from home, so he went back to work. It was really hot out…over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Around five hours later, when he was finished working, he said, “I wonder if that kitten is still there.” We both doubted it, but went to check anyway. Sure enough, she was still there, panting in a small patch of shade. We brought her back to the house with the intent of giving her some water, but she decided to dash inside when we opened the door…and hasn’t wanted to leave.
There have been a lot of ups and downs with this one. Her initial vet visit revealed a tapeworm which delayed her ability to be spayed. Because we weren’t able to spay her right away, she went into heat…and started peeing on everything (yay…not). The thing that caused the most problem was her peeing on my husband’s $1500 wide seating Lay Z Boy recliner. He bought that so he and I could sit in it together, and was really upset that we had to throw it out after less than two years. Nothing we did would stop her from peeing on it, She kept going back and doing it again, and Link started peeing on it, too. If anyone out there is having problems like this, there is no chemical that takes cat pee out of fabric. It is all lies. Do not waste your money. We got a shock mat to deter the cats, it didn’t work…at all. Not only was the charge too small to be felt, the cats just pulled the nodes out of the pads. We got some plastic pricker scat mats to put on the chair–the idea was that the cats wouldn’t walk on the prickly surface. She didn’t care. She stood on top of the scat mat, right in front of us, and peed on the chair. Once a cat pees on something, there is nothing that will eliminate the smell or deter the cat from peeing there again. The best bet is to start out with canvas covers or a material that doesn’t absorb smells.
Okay, enough of the rant. Navi started out a bit timid. At first she was even scared of the toys the other cats played with. When I would take out the fishing pole, the other cats would jump over each other to get to the worm (especially Zelda and Moblin), but Navi would hide behind the others, lol. Now, she is first in line to catch the worm. Her confidence and playfulness have grown so much. She and Moblin are pretty much besties.
Navi (top) and Moblin (bottom) sitting on cat shelves.
No matter what, she is a product of her past. She was obviously abandoned. If she were a feral cat, she would not have come to us so easily. She knew what a house was, and that she was supposed to go inside, but she had been out on the street long enough to be sick and starving. This means that she is still working on some trust issues. She will lay beside people, get pets from people, let you hear her ridiculously loud purr, but she’s not comfortable sitting laps, yet. You can see that she wants to sit laps, even stepping onto a lap now and then, but not for long. Another issue her past has caused is fear of starving. If there is food anywhere near her, she will horf it down. She will also try to take food–not just from other cats. She tried to take a beef stick from me yesterday. I will usually give her a little bite when she wants something, because I don’t want her to think that she’s ever going to starve again.
Navi after taking a bite out of my notebook.
A lot of people will probably tell me how unhealthy it is to feed people food to cats, and that I will “shorten her life”. If her life has been shortened, it was because some jerk abandoned her as a kitten in the middle of the summer, not because I give her a tiny bite of my beef jerky once in a while.
I really hope that some of my readers actually play the Legend of Zelda games, because Navi is so perfectly named. She has something to say about everything. As she’s meowing at me to look at whatever it is she wants me to see, I just picture the little fairy in LoZ saying, “Hey, hey listen.” Of course, isn’t it just my luck that she’ll clam up the moment I turn a video camera on? She’s the most talkative cat there is (aside from Zelda), except when the camera is rolling. What can I say? My cats are determined to show their personalities to just me. When we start setting up the smart security, maybe I’ll get some footage they don’t know about, haha.
Like Moblin, Navi has been through a lot. She’s only been with us about six months, so she’s still getting used to having us as her family. Given enough time, I’m sure she’ll realize that she doesn’t have to worry about pain, hunger, or abandonment ever again. She found her forever home.
Are they cuddling or fighting–you be the judge…
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