By Moss Geren, Writing Specialist
June 06, 2023

Now I know in my last cat post I said that we only had room for one more kitten, but you see, that was an inside kitten. There was a secret clause I didn’t know about where we had room for one more inside-outside cat named Sirius. Mom said he got a pass because of “that hook in his tail and the fact that that cat who doesn’t like anybody likes ‘im.” Snowy can’t get along with most cats, but she raised Sirius since he’s very polite.

I had found myself longing for the silver cat, Loki’s sister, that had slipped away in our adventure to catch ourselves a kitten. You can read up on that back in part two of this segment. It was silly, really. We already had three cats, one of which was an elderly, three-legged boy named Stripe who needed a lot of care. Plus, every time I mentioned how cute the neighborhood kitties were, Mom would say, “No more cats.” I agreed with her wholeheartedly. We didn’t have enough room for a pretty silver cat.

“There’s a kitten by the pool,” my older sister, Katie, said when she saw “Baby Kitty” for the first time. He had almost certainly wandered over from the same cat colony we snatched Loki from.

“Mom and I don’t think we should get any more animals,” I warned her. “Don’t get attached.”

One of our cousins, Milo, was staying for the summer and the three of us were constantly in the pool. Baby Kitty would come to visit Snowy who was sitting with us out there. He was feral, afraid of us humans, but he adored Snowy.

More surprisingly, Snowy didn’t hiss or bat at him like she normally would with the other critters. She hadn’t really liked cats other than her mother and her siblings, and they got left behind with other farmers in Kentucky when we moved to Florida. She hated the mischievous Loki with a burning passion and had stopped coming into the house as much. Sierra, our collie mix, was afraid to even pass by her because Snowy was quick to hit any non-human that dared walk too close.

“Oh my god,” I said when I saw Snowy sniffing Baby Kitty without promptly batting him. “Snowy likes him.”

So began Operation Socialize Baby Kitty. I felt responsible for Baby since he was around my house, all filled with worms and fleas and not having a place to call home. So, I was going to get him used to humans and rehome him.

Phase One was feeding him. It’s one of the most basic things in life and for getting an animal to trust me. Few kittens can resist wet food.

Over time, Katie and I started inching closer and closer. “Don’t push it,” Katie said when he ran away from his bowl again.

“I’ll just stay here,” I said, sitting down on the painted concrete and scooting closer. Sirius eyed me suspiciously, torn between his fear of me and love for the delicious, stinky wet food. “It’ll be fine.”

Eventually Baby Kitty let us pet him, but only while he was eating. Katie and I would take turns petting him while he ate as fast as kittenly possible before fleeing from us giants.

He started staying a tiny bit longer before he ran, but I still wasn’t impressed with the progress. So, I went into Phase Two: play games with the boy.

Loki had opened up to us in the first week or so we had him, and a big part of that was Katie playing with him. Kittens will forget they’re supposed to be wary of humans if they get into the hunt. It let Sirius get used to me being there, and he started associating me with fun instead of fear.

I brought out Loki’s laser to play with Sirius. He sprinted after it! I tried to lure him closer and closer to me, so he’d get used to me faster. He didn’t fall for it when I put the laser point right by my feet, but he kept coming back to play with me. I also continued to pet him while he ate. He later discovered Worm on a String, and promptly hid the toy in the depths of the garage.

Mom wasn’t involved with the cat wrangling, but she would see Sirius sitting outside with Snowy. When he walked, his long tail would bend into a little curve, and she’d say, “Isn’t that the cutest thing you’ve ever seen!?”

One day Mom told me we were going to keep him. I was so surprised. Up until that point I was fully planning on rehoming him. I didn’t even think about Mom changing her mind. “I thought you said no more cats!?” I said.

“Ooooh!” She cooed, “But that hook in his tail!”

Katie said, “He was already staying. I was just waiting for you guys to realize that.”

After maybe three seconds, I had adjusted. Baby Kitty was our kitty. After all, if we gave him away, we wouldn’t be able to make sure he was getting as spoiled as he should be.

Well, he had to have a name since we were keeping him. We started throwing some around while we floated in the pool and watched him scale the fence. “How about Cirrus,” Milo suggested after we’d gone down a long list ranging from Quicksilver to Nimbus.

“Or Sirius!” I said. “Like Sirius Black.”

“Or Ciri,” Katie said, “like in the Witcher.

“Sirius could be a nickname for Ciri,” Milo offered. Jokes on all of us, because he still thinks his real name is Baby Kitty. In my heart, though, I decided his name was Sirius even if Katie wanted to nickname him Ciri, and he was going to be my cat.

I’ll fully admit I was trying to be Sirius’ favorite, which was often Katie’s accusation. I would go out there extra and play with him every morning or evening when he wandered in. I was absolutely delighted the day he bounded towards me and let me pet him. No food, no toys, no nothing, and he ran right up to me to say hello.

I put a collar on him that very day, after a quick trip to the store. I also ordered his tags and made sure to put “Sirius” on them.

About a month after we started socializing him, I finally felt like he was comfortable enough with us to take him to the vet. He ran under the house afterwards, totally aghast; he’s a very sweet, sensitive boy. I was afraid we were going to go backwards with our progress, but he forgave me a few hours later after I offered him some snacks.

Now he had a home, he wasn’t going to have any worms in his belly, and he was going to be absolutely adored by the three resident humans.

“Look, they’re sitting underneath the car together,” I said, in awe, pointing at Snowy and Sirius.

“So, we just chill here?” Katie asked, pretending to be Ciri.

“Yeah,” she said as Snowy.

After we took him to the vet, the last step was getting him used to being inside the house. This had a dual purpose. I wanted to introduce him to Loki while he was still a kitten; at the same time, I was going to have to keep him inside for a few days whenever we took him to get fixed in another month.

He’s totally domesticated now and sleeps on our couch just like his brother, Loki. However, he has a little more sense than Loki, who tries to eat plastic on the regular.

The kittens love playing together, and I am so happy they get along. They aren’t too far apart in age, a little over a year apart I think. Both Snowy and Loki got a friend when Sirius adopted us.

Sirius wandered into our home and our lives. I’d wanted a little silver cat, and a gray tabby showed up in our yard to hang with Snowy. She loved him and taught him her ways. I didn’t know that we’d be keeping that boy, but as soon as two out of three of us at the house said yes, my affirmative vote followed.

I only ever got two cats on purpose, but I couldn’t imagine my life without the cat herd I’ve had over my lifetime.