Last June we added a new kitty cat to our home. My old lady Dita had been showing signs of deteriorating health, so we thought to ease the potential gloom with a new life.
It was my husband’s turn to pick, I told him with our current fur buddies, a male would be best to manage the peace but he fell in love with a playful little panda cat that he named Ingrid. I knew Astrid would disapprove. Fearing a doppelganger would replace her.
Astrid did not take well to Ingrid to the point that we had to isolate them when we leave the house. What happened next however was a surprise. After the vet was able to save Dita, her strength returned and whenever Astrid would try to pick a fight with the little one either Dita or Nemo would intervene to protect her. It was really both inspiring and frustrating on account of how noisy these assholes were, but it helped. My elders looking out for the kitten helped to train my battle cats temper to not be such a problem. Astrid will still chase Ingrid from time to time, but she listens to the verbal commands to halt and Ingrid herself will treat it like a game and charge back at Ingrid, pulling off these ridiculous stunts just to try and get her riled up. It’s hilarious.
My older buddies are still getting older though and at 15 years old they are on the higher end of kitty cat life spans from what I’ve read. Diets been suffering from a progressively worse asthmatic wheeze and Nemo has lost a lot of weight in a short time, no longer able to jump up on the couch or bed. I know I don’t have much time left with those two and I’ve been struggling emotionally with the inevitably of saying goodbye to my beloved fur babies that have been with me since my days in Wyoming and were caretakers of my mental well being for about half my life now.
I’m glad though that they were able to accept and befriend the kitten and even trained her to defend herself.