Marlowe is a kitten and joined our family two weeks ago. Herewith some cute-kitten shots and stories and also some kitten ethics.
He’s called Marlowe after the fictional detective, because his coloring is sort of noir.
Since Bodoni died, Rune the middle-aged female Bengal has been lonely and bored and acting a little on the crazy side. So we thought a kitten would be just the change she needed.
So far, it’s not going that well; Rune was originally horrified, skulking around the edges of the room to avoid this fearsome new diminutive fluffball. Marlowe of course fell instantly in love, and stalks her remorselessly, pouncing on her tail from behind things, unfazed by her horrible snarls and occasional cuffs, or just not smart enough to notice. The tension level declines day by day, there is hope that they’ll be friends, eventually.
We were movie-watching (Nausicaä, not bad at all) and Marlowe seized the opportunity for some serious shut-eye.
Kitten Ethics · We had trouble finding him. We’ve had bad experiences with Vancouver’s SPCA and will adopt no more animals from there. Here in town, the vast majority of kittens are scooped up by, and must be adopted through, Vancouver Orphan Kitten Rescue, who seem like a very nice outfit. Only, they won’t let you adopt a cat unless you promise that it will be kept inside and never allowed out. Which we won’t; they may be right that inside-only cats have a longer life expectancy, but there are quality-of-life issues too, and our feline house-mates sure seem to enjoy sharing the porch and yard with us.
So we bought it for $50 via classified ad from a pair of aging hippies in a dubious neighborhood; took it the vet that afternoon and yep, it was wormy and flea-ridden, but these things are easily cured, and now Marlowe is the picture of health, suffering only from that universal plague of kittens, air-headedness.
Now, we’re awfully fond of Marlowe, so boys and girls, let’s keep our thoughts pure; you know what I mean.
