Weekend Cat Blogging: INTRODUCING CLAIRE

This is CLAIRE. She is probably around 7 years old, and she is the apple of my better half's eye. She has silky rabbit fur, glowing yellow-green eyes that don't miss a thing, a bent (I call it "broken") stubby tail, and, in the words of our favorite vet Dr. Crow, a "spectacular nose dent," which you can actually see in this photo.

Claire can usually be found sleeping atop a heating pad on my partner's lap, on the recliner in the living room. Lately, she likes to curl up on the old couch (we are waiting for a friend to come pick it up); she threatens not to let it leave our house, now that she's discovered it.

Although I originally spotted Claire (then called "Nefertiti") at Meow, she is pretty clearly my partner's cat. She favors her, and that's just the way it is. The two of them are thick as thieves, period.

We chose Claire in part because of her sad story: she'd been found in a ditch either with her kittens or just about ready to give birth to them, and all of the kittens were adopted out. Poor Mama Claire was left behind--everyone loved the cute babies, but no one wanted the tired out mother! Well, we did, and so we took her home.

We had Claire for about a week when I made the offhand comment, "It's like not even having a second cat." Claire pretty much spent her days and nights sleeping on the back of a cushy chair in the living room of our apartment back then--no meowing, no playing, not much of anything. Of course, about a day later we realized her lethargy wasn't just evidence of a shy nature...my partner discovered millet bumps on Claire's forehead, and little raw sores on her body under her fur. Many vet trips later, the diagnosis was excessive vaccinations (for some reason she'd been given repeated shots, from the records Meow had given us) and a food allergy. So she ate "duck and pea" food for a while, and we kept an eye on her. Eventually, the sores healed up, the millet bumps went away, and Claire emerged as the playful, smart, loving kitty who we know and love today.

Claire also pretty much civilized our other cat, the bad blue Harriet. Harriet used to stalk my partner (once she even drew blood, wrapping her mouth around the bottom of my partner's foot!) around the house, and was generally a brat. She didn't know how to clean herself, nor do what we call "paws for the cause" (that kneading that cats do when they purr and are getting ready to make themselves at home). Claire changed all that. She taught Harriet how to be a cat, basically. Now our kittens are both pretty wonderful.

This is the first time I've posted about Claire, which is what I mean by "introducing" her. She's been a furry member of our family for about 6 years now, and while she's the oldest of our fuzzy brood, she is the middle "child" (first we adopted Harriet from a pet shelter in Bremerton, then less than a year later we adopted Claire...then, 4 years ago, we adopted Auggie the Yorkie).

So, a Sunday tribute to Claire! I sometimes make sarcastic comments about how my partner would save Claire rather than me if our house caught on fire--but, given Claire's sweet nature, I can hardly blame her.