Oh, Not Another Gray Hair?

Well, a gray hair or two might be expected since I AM going to be 18 (in human years) next month. So the human thinks. I could be 18 now for all she knows for sure. But considering I have not succumbed to feline vanity and the useless pursuit of foregone youth by, ahem, altering my natural hair color, I think I look pretty darn good. (BTW: Sky thinks no one knows about his box of "Just for TomCats" in the cupboard. Ha! Ha! Ha!)

But if I have any extra gray hairs this week, it's because of a little "trouble" at home. Actually, we have a new synonym for "trouble" at our house and his name is Quito! (One of our visiting felines) Our human describes it like having a wild nephew or cousin come to visit: you love him; you're entertained by him; you want to keep him safe until he can get back home but he can't go home soon enough even though you know you're going to miss him just a little bit when he's gone. That's Quito.

The Human wasn't even in the mood to take pictures the other night and here are some spontaneous shots all taken within half an hour. Spontaneous is a good word for Quito. There is absolutely nothing staged about that boy.

Here's Quito drinking water from the kitchen sink:

Five minutes later Quito's in the bathroom sink:

Fifteen minutes later Quito is blocking the doorway to the back room:
because Sky went in to the guest room to eat their crunchy food and got trapped. Sky was looking a bit sheepish, but not too stressed when rescued.
But then it got real nasty. Quito trapped Blackie in the litter box.(I mean, there are some places one feline simply does not trap another feline) and then he trapped Charlie under the bed (no one traps Charlie). And then he got put in his room with the door closed for the rest of the night.

I have the mixed blessing of simultaneously being afraid of everything and nothing. Which means, I run if he even looks at me but, then I go right back for more even if he's going to chase me. The Human keeps saying something about "discernment" and "judgment" and I keep telling her "I'm 18. I am who I am. Forget it."

At 4 a.m. it got really really scary. Blackie and Sky got in to a knock-down-drag-em-out-rolling-around-honest-to-goodness-FIGHT. Which they have never done before. (The humans at first thought Quito had broken out of his closed room so they chased the black and white cat with a broom when they broke up the fight. But when they realized it was Sky instead of Quito, they had to find him and apologize and assure him that they weren't taking Blackie's side over his.)

All the humans could think of was the extra stress of both of them being trapped earlier just caused them to lash out at each other. Our Human was really not amused by it all as she had been woken up already at 2 a.m. by the phone because our HumanGrandma was sick and where she stays wanted to take her to the hospital. It was a pretty stressful night. OtherHuman gave up on sleeping and just went to work. Human went back to bed and woke up with both Sky and Blackie sleeping on the same side of the bed. They weren't hurt and they haven't had a fight since.

We know that Quito can be nice because he really gets along with his feline sister Patch, but she lets him "be in charge"

and knows how to "play" with him (in OUR climber, you may note)

But the Oligarchy does not surrender.



No matter how cute or charming or lovable.

Our humans had a call from the neighbor humans yesterday. They have to be back to work on July 24th so will finish moving back before then.Which means Quito will be going back to HIS home by July 24th. I'm not sure how many naps it is until the 24th, but I'm counting.

Naps, that is. Not gray hairs.

--
Alberta