So, Skinny (not Kimi) is a black adolescent kitty (four months old or so) with a couple of white splotches on his belly. He's got a cold and keeps sneezing, he's very active and energetic, he rubs up on you to be petted, and he is TALKATIVE. Mao! Mao! Mao!

It's getting kind of distressing actually. It's like when a baby is crying and you're like "I have fed you and changed your diaper and sang you a song, WHAT DO YOU WANT??" I played with him and gave him food and water and petted him, and he's still going MAO! MAO! MAO! all the time. I wonder if maybe he's teething, since he's about the age when adult teeth start to come in. But I would think then he'd be biting everything in sight, and he's not. He's just… stressed out for some reason.

I think what he really needs is a littermate to play and wrestle with, but I can't give him that. I've been giving him toys to bite and wrestle instead, but he loses interest in them fairly quickly.

If I didn't know he was a (neutered) male, I'd think he was in heat. He's got the same insistent meow, constant need for petting, and aura of dissatisfaction.

I don't know his story--maybe he was with his littermates, but they got adopted already or something, and now he's alone and he doesn't know where they went and he's calling for them? Or for his mama? They usually don't come to me with names, not to mention already fixed, so I have to wonder if he was a surrender, or what. Maybe the humane society fixed and named him, and THEN realized he had a cold? I dunno. He also doesn't have one of those paper collars they put on their kitties. He is a mystery.

I'm hoping his distress will lessen as he gets used to his new environment, and that it's not something more serious like he's in pain or something. I was going to have him sleep in the cage while I slept out on the couch with Hypatia tonight, but that's not going to happen. He HATES being in the cage, and has already knocked his food bowl over once, so I don't want to leave him in there all night. (What if he knocks his water bowl over and then has nothing to drink?) I'll have to sleep in here so I can keep an eye on him. Silly cat.

Hypatia is mad at me, but she didn't hiss when she caught sight of Skinny, which I consider a vast improvement on her previous reactions, especially since she usually hates males. Maybe his being neutered makes him less offensive to her. Skinny is sick, so I can't properly introduce them and probably won't be able to, since he just needs to get better and doesn't need to make weight or anything. Once he gets better, he's gone.

A bit later:

Okay, apparently what Skinny needs is… lots of cuddling? Maybe he just wanted some comfort. He's calmed down a bit now, although he still MAOs at me when I stop petting him for too long. However, now Hypatia is standing outside my door crying because I won't let her in. I CAN'T WIN WITH YOU PEOPLE.

I do feel bad about disrupting Hypatia's life every couple of months, especially since she's been settling in so well to our new apartment, but on the other hand I don't want to quit fostering. Sigh.

Poor Skinny. He's just lonely, I think. He wants a littermate, or his mama, or both. Last night he slept on me or next to me, and if I moved, he would move to be closer. This morning I took a nap and he slept back-to-back with me. He purrs up a storm and kneads the air when you pet him. I wish he had a companion, but obviously the HS wouldn't want to let another kitten catch his cold.

He still walks around meowing a lot, like he just can't settle down or be satisfied with anything. The only time he was truly calm was last night, sleeping on my bed. He's been eating a little, but not much, and not drinking too much either, which is bad, especially in this heat. He probably doesn't have much of an appetite because of his cold, but I'm used to kittens being like YES GIVE ME THE FOOD, GIVE ME ALL OF IT so this is unusual for me.

I was worried that he hadn't used the litter box much, but I can hear him digging around in there as I type this. Good kitty. It's kind of nice to have an older kitten who (probably) won't have an accident on my bed. Less laundry, for one thing.

Speaking of laundry, I was carrying a full laundry basket and so had to keep my bedroom door open for a longer amount of time than usual. Skinny escaped briefly, and in his haste to explore he almost walked into Hypatia, without giving her the proper respect/caution she deserves as Queen Of The House. He got a hiss for that.

I have a feeling he'll be trying to escape a lot, because he's not like the tiny ones I usually get who are satisfied with just my room for a couple of weeks before they want to see what's in the rest of the house. He's already too big for this room! But he has to stay in here to keep from getting Hypatia sick.

Also, he just leapt up enthusiastically to chase a bug that's crawling up my wall, landed on a pile of library books, and promptly slid off the nightstand and onto the floor with the books. And then jumped back up again, ready for hunting. Silly kitty.

(It's fun to try and translate his constant meows. Right now he's looking up at the bug going "THERE'S A BUG ON THE WALL! A BUG! DO YOU SEE IT! IT'S A BUG! A BUG!! IT'S RIGHT THERE!!")