Fur-babies V

[draggonlaady]

When I interviewed for my job, there was a litter of kittens in the clinic that had been abandoned in the parking lot (yes, this is a sadly frequent occurrence. People suck.). One was an adorable calico, the rest were tabbies. They tried to pawn a kitten off on me, and I said not now, but if the calico is still here when I start, I'll take her. (You think you know where this is going, but you're wrong.)

So when I started work about 3 months later, all the kittens had been adopted. So I was safe.

But 2 months after that, the nice old lady who'd adopted the calico brought her back, because she was just way too hyper for a calm, quiet lady with a calm, quiet house and a bunch of breakable collectible stuff. So it turns out I was not safe after all.

And Pandora came home to live with me... this critter actually came with a name which I kept! Except the previous owner called her "Pandy" which I think is rather undignified.

Now, in general, I do not take home baby critters. I haven't the time or patience for infants. Pandora has been an excellent reminder of why that is. I ended up buying a Scat-Mat to keep her off the kitchen counters, and have seen her literally hit the ceiling on several occasions. She has a split personality, too. She does not tolerate restraint-and has actually managed to inflict reasonably serious wounds on myself and my assistant (C) simultaneously while trying to avoid a nail trim. She lost, but not before leaving multiple gouges down my arms and hands, and teeth marks in C's wrist. C's husband spent a lot of time laughing at us trying to scrub and bandage each other's wounds over the sink, while trying not to bleed on each other.

Thankfully, she's calmed down considerably as she's matured (she's still the kitten though, as she's 6 years younger than Ozzy). She's learned that I awaken violently when pounced on--after 2 or 3 times being flung across the room, she's stopped trying to use my bed as part of the racetrack when she and Ozzy or Anika get to playing chase.

And I've finally got her convinced that she does not get to sleep on my head or throat at night.