Ditten

Halloween night, while trick-or-treating, the kids fell in love with a kitten.  Neightbors had found some lost kittens and were trying to find them homes.  Our kids came home begging.  Apparently I had eatten too much candy and my brain wasn't working and I said yes.  We went the next day to get the kitten only to learn that they weren't actually "lost" just someone's outdoor pets that had wandered across the street and into our neighborhood.  By the light of morning I was pretty sure I had dodged a bullet.  But within the week the kids had found a friend who needed to get rid of a few kitties and this adorable, distracting creature became ours on provision that she got along with Perdita.

The sheer cutness saved her from being booted from the house as her claws scratched and poked bodies and furniture, as she hissed and bothered Dita, as she climbed on the table and ate tons of human food, and as she threw up worms (luckily Andrew filmed them sqirming in her pile of barf so that none of us can forget the horror). 

However, even I love to watch her chase the toy mouse, wrestle with the stuffed red panda, and jump and run with her kitten energy.  We tried on name after name without luck- Nutmeg, Groot, Gremlin, Cronk but the name that stuck was never intended to be her name.  Cousin Dane can't say his 'K' sound thus ditten instead of kitten.  So just being silly we started refering to the kitten as Ditten.  We have had her for 4 months now and everyone calls her Ditten (even though her collar says Groot).

She spends a lot of time with Andrew and he can't get enough of her.  So after she was three months old, and worm free, we committed to getting her declawed and spayed.

Of course after that commitment she healed and promptly started pooping in the front room.  I could have cried (maybe I did).  We have a theory, no real proof, but since the neighbor cat can't defend itself we will blame it all on her.  Some cat _____(insert Mittens - the Bishop's cat that enters our house through the cat door far to often) peed on the couch.  The pee trickled down to the floor where thankfully most of it landed on a music book.  The room started to stick but since we don't go in there very often it took a while to figure it out.  In the mean time Ditten started pooping in there to mark her territory (the kids are sure this is true).  We moved out the couch.  Got the carpets cleaned.  Got Ditten a new, larger litter box, and covered the entire room with aluminum foil (I read that cat's don't like to walk on it).  I was that committed to giving this kitten another chance.  The next morning we caught her peeing on the foil! At this point I was ready to get rid of her but I guess I love our kids so we took the next step.

We blocked off the room entirely to prevent the cat from entering.  That worked, at least until she started peeing in the dinning room.  I only wish I was joking.  Around this time we headed to Hawaii with the dinning room closed up and the library baracaded.  Luckily we came home to poop and pee free carpet.  We even opened the dinning room doors the other day.  Where she promptly peed.  The mattress barricade has to go to McCall soon...if she starts up again with the regular pooping and peeing I'm not sure what will happen...who will win this battle.  Luckily she is a lot bigger now, not as irresistibly cute.