it’s K-Rad y0!   Starting from scratch

When Kitty left us, we knew that we couldn’t live without another pet. We obviously didn’t intend to ‘replace’ her – nothing could replace her. But considering the joy that she brought to us – even a crabby cat like her – we knew that life without cat(s) is a sucky life indeed.

So we hit up the SPCA in Mong Kok to check out some cats that were up for adoption. Since the MK SPCA is in the ‘pet store’ area, we check out some of those as well.

You always hear about the poor conditions of pet stores, and how they are the last place you’d want to buy a pet. I didn’t know this when we got Kitty back in 1998, but I have since found out that it really isn’t the ideal way to get a cat. Some of the cats were actually very nice – this one British Shorthair in particular seemed really nice. But they were selling these shorthairs for like $3000 HKD and up! That’s over $400 for a plain ol’ domestic cat. There was this one baby kitten that I came across – he was sitting in a cage, and didn’t look older than 2 months. He probably shouldn’t have been taken away from his mother yet. When I approached him, I thought I saw him meowing at me, but I couldn’t hear him due to the noise (another crappy condition for pet stores). As I got closer though, I realized that this little baby kitten was hissing at me! A 2 month old kitten, already hissing at people! I can’t even imagine what some people must be doing to the poor thing.

Anyway, the SPCA at Mong Kok didn’t have any cats, but pointed us to the main location in Wan Chai, which had plenty to choose from. We spent 2 or 3 hours the first day, playing with cats of various ages. From 3 months to 3 years, there were cats of all types. Hyperactive kittens, curious cats that just wanted to watch from a distance, shy kitties that didn’t really want to interact with anyone. There were a few little kittens that we liked, but weren’t quite sure about it. Anyway, it would have been too late – we stayed about 30 minutes after closing, and wouldn’t have been able to adopt right away. It was a holiday that day as well, so it was really busy. You could barely get any one-on-one time with any of the cats, so it was even harder to make a decision.

We went back the next day, and while everyone else was working we got to spend a LOT of time playing with various cats. We had the whole place to ourselves for at least 3 hours. The young 3-month-old kittens are still the funnest to watch, but we weren’t sure if they were the right ones. Finally, I saw this beautiful young tabby waking up from a nap. I actually didn’t notice her at all the day before, because she was very shy and slept the whole time. This time, since it was quiet, we were able to try to coax her out. She was incredibly shy, and scared to come out and play. But as soon as we approached her with our hands, she became very affectionate and started purring immediately. Although she was still too shy to play out in the open, I knew she would be the right one for us. She is very slender, and has a pretty face with dark outlines around her eyes. She has beautiful spots on her soft furry belly as well, almost like a leopard. She arrived at the SPCA a few days earlier, after being rescued by inspectors. In other words, she was a stray cat, born in the city. She is about 5 months old.

The second cat we liked was just as shy, if not more. He was sharing a cage with another kitten, and was laying in the litter box. When we tried to approach him, he was also very welcome to petting. Once we started petting him and talking to him, he eventually came out of the litter box, and eventually out of the cage. When he finally came out, we saw that he was the blackest cat you could imagine – 100% black fur, with no white or grey hairs at all. Even his whiskers are pure black! His eyes are very small, and a dark green – almost like a camoflage colour. He is almost invisible in the dark. His reason for ending up at the SPCA? He was abandoned by his family because they “couldn’t get along” with him. Even meeting him for the first time, I thought there was no way he would be a troublesome cat… He is also about 5 months old.

So we made the decision to adopt the two most shy – but most friendly cats in the SPCA. We named them Zoe (a pretty girl’s name) and Jett (because he is ‘jet black’).

We were able to take Zoe home right away, because she wasn’t due to be spayed for another month. Jett, unfortunately, had to stay behind an extra few days to be neutered. Poor guy!

Zoe had a bit of a rough first day.. She was very scared, and it is a bit of a hike to the taxi stand from the SPCA. She ended up getting motion-sickness on the way there, and puked. She was also drooling a lot for the next few hours… I guess she was just really stressed from all the travel. She was pretty scared at first, but was very easily distracted by Kitty’s old toys. Whenever she started to look scared, we would play with her, and pet her. By the time Jett came home, she was just starting to get comfortable in her new surroundings.

Then Jett came home… We thought Jett would be just as scared, since they were both pretty scared when we first met them. But he was pretty much ready to explore the place right away! I guess the difference is that she was raised in the city, probably by her mother, and he was raised by a family who must have at least liked him at first, before getting tired of taking care of him.

They don’t really get along very well just yet. The first day was the worst – Jett would try to play with her all the time, but she would have none of it. She would growl and swat at him whenever he got close. It seems that he is too dumb to realize that this means she wants to be left alone, or at least take it slow, because he constantly runs at her! This scares her, pisses her off, and she ends up growling at him. This in turn scares him, and under the bed he goes.

They seem to be getting better by the hour though, and will actually sit together when we are around. Right now they are still ‘testing each other’. So far, no screaming or scratching, so we’ll let them sort things out. Hopefully it will be even better once Zoe gets spayed.

As far as their personalities go, we definitely picked the right cats. Zoe is a sassy girl, always vocalizing to the world, letting everyone know when she is happy or sad about something. She is extremely playful, and very smart. Her favourite toy is a string, which she uses to play tug of war. As soon as you let go of your end, she will drop it in front of you, and go “meow” which I guess means “another round!”

Jett is an absolute baby, which is why I call him Baby J. He is very affectionate, and wants nothing more than to cuddle with you. Once you pet him enough, he will get into a certain mood… he will start looking around, looking for somewhere to bury his head. Once he finds a spot, he will begin kneading it, and suckling like he was a weeks-old kitten. He does this ALL THE TIME and it is really cute. At first we thought it might be due to stress, but he seems really comfortable already, and he only does it when he is really happy. To think that his previous family said that they “couldn’t get along with him” boggles my mind. I will NEVER understand it, but I don’t mind – it’s to our benefit! We get to have him in our family, and they get to miss out on this awesome cat.

It’s really hard to take photos of Jett, since he is so dark. The camera’s autofocus can’t find him at all – even his eyes are too dark to focus on! He is also too dark to focus manually, for my skills anyway. There are no details on him to find the right sharpness. I will have to try bringing all the lamps I have into one room, and see if he’ll play in that environment. I did take several pics of Zoe, which you can find on my Facebook album right here (account not required). You’ll quickly see why we think she is so beautiful

I did snap this one photo of them sitting together. I used 3 exposures and merged them into HDR with Photoshop.. They don’t line up perfectly, so it’s a bit blurry. But at least you can see both of them pretty clearly! Not the best photo, I’ll have to take some more when it is brighter, when I am feeling better (yeah during all this time, I have had the worst sore throat of my life, including a pretty bad fever, chills, sweating, and body aches).