Petblogging (Week-end Assignment #9)

Apollo Psycho Kitty has lived here since she was a few weeks old.  You would never know from the speed with which she disappears whenever she encounters a human that she has spent most of her existence in a loving and tolerant home. 

And yes, I know, Apollo was a male god.  Wanna make something of it?

When she was in 5th grade, my daughter began to volunteer at the local animal shelter.  It had just begun a Junior Humane Society program, which basically provided an opportunity for kids to go in and pet animals occasionally.  Since she was homeschooling that year, JHS became a big part of my daughter's life.  She continued to volunteer well into seventh grade, when her cadette girl scout troup raised money for the shelter by having an animal-treat bake sale.

By the time sixth grade rolled around, she had figured out a way for us to become even more involved: we could foster a mother cat and her kittens in their post-birth-pre-adoption weeks.  Oh boy: we could get five new cats instead of just one.  Every mother's dream. 

Mama Cass and Apollo, Dionysius, Aphrodite, and Athena, who had been born on the city streets somewhere, moved into our spare bedroom which, luckily, was scheduled for an overhaul later in the year.  The kids decided that the kittens should be named for inhabitants of Mount Olympus, and we all demonstrated that we are unfit zookeepers by unwittingly giving the boys the names of girls and vice versa.

The plan worked to some extent.  We did experience the joy of four kittens romping around, with the knowledge that when they grew into cats they would move on. They were orange and gray and tabby and fluffy and lots of fun.  Their mother, a scrawny thing too young and skinny for her maternal responsibilties, relaxed on the cushions we supplied, cast an occasional claw into the nose of an overly eager dog, and stayed clear of our other cat, who mostly stalked past the young family, emitting loud and lengthy hisses. 

Of course, the plan was not perfectly executed.  When the time came for the kitties to go, my daughter and I discovered that we were incapable of letting them all depart at once.  And so Apollo stayed, lazing about the house and hastily wriggling out of any situation that might involve human contact.  (She will, actually, sleep at the foot of the bed as long as Idon't intrude into her rather extensive personal zone of space.)

Just last week my daughter and I were wondering about the fates of the other cats.  I hope their lives are as cushy as Apollo's.

Walked: 3 miles.