My beloved cat, Balthasar, left this world on Tuesday, July 23, 2011. I will someday post a remembrance, but I am working on gathering all I can from my memory and my pictures to be sure the story is as complete as possible. I don't want to forget a single detail. In the meantime, Kelly and I have added to the family - a bit of distraction in hopes that someday I'll have another little buddy who claims me as his own.

Kelly and I spent a long time looking at kittens in the area on Petfinder.com. We decided to go to the Gladstone Animal Shelter because Kelly’s previous beloved kittens, Renny and Sahara, had come from there. The shelter had listed a litter on Petfinder.com with the following description ”What a fun litter of kittens! The have been with us about a month and are just as playful and fun loving as can be. The calico kitten is a female and the other two kittens are males. Mom is a calico as well and needs a great home, too. These babies (and mom) are really fun and we are anxious to see them get into the permanent homes they so deserve, can you help?” I was interested. What sweet little babies.

Sebastien (the little white and orange guy in the picture) was the calmest of the litter. When we brought him out to play, he was affectionate and sweet. We were sold. Kelly also picked a little black and white female that was too new to be adopted out right away. She will come home with us in a week or so. They didn’t even have a picture of her on Petfinder.com yet, so you’ll just have to wait for pictures when we bring her home next Monday.

Sebastien was adopted right away, on July 30, 2011 and came home Monday, August 1, 2011 after going to Kendallwood Animal Clinic for a checkup and neuter. The staff loved him, said he was very quiet and playful. He has ear mites and they suspect he also had fleas as Sara said she saw some flea dust during the exam. He tested negative for FIV. They gave us medicine for ear mites and some flea/mite/roundworm medicine and sent us home. I sat in the back seat of the Forrester with him and played with him on the way home. He didn’t seem to mind the car ride at all.

Once home, I bathed Sebastien and then took him upstairs to show him the litter box.

He went potty right away. He spent the rest of the evening exploring upstairs, making friends with Harper and Zeus, both of whom he was not scared much, especially Zeus. 

He seemed thrilled with every toy we offered, from the cat fishing poles to the vibrating mouse, the smaller mouse toys, the animal print ball, and the crinkle ball. He had a hard time with a feather he pulled off of the cat fishing pole - we finally noticed that it wasn't just that he was carrying the feather around in his mouth. He couldn't get it out.

We noticed that he is a chewer. We may have trouble with exposed electrical cords, as he chewed on everything he came in contact with.

He is very affectionate with both of us, rubbing his little head against ours. Kelly seems to get him to purr easily. I don’t notice it as often, but Kelly says that is because it isn’t always an audible purr. I also noticed that Sebastien wants very much to cuddle with Zeus, who tolerated his advances well until Sebastien seemed to be looking for a snack. Sara told me that she believes he is 4-5 months old. The Gladstone Animal Shelter website states that they have had the litter for a month, so he had probably never spent a night away from his mother. Poor little guy.

 I tried to get him to stay on the bed to sleep, but he left us. Kelly found him in her room beside her cabinet this morning. Kelly gets up much earlier that I do, so she feeds the animals while I am still sleeping. She described a standoff between Harper and Sebastien at Harper’s food bowl, where the kitten fearlessly forged ahead to partake of the dog food while Harper gave a low little growl. Apparently, Harper gave in and walked away. What a good girl. Sebastien seems to like her very much; though in the very beginning he gave her little warning hisses of fear. His walking between her legs and rubbing up against her indicate things have changed quickly. Kelly also said that Sebastien attacked his own food with great enthusiasm.



He was very vocal this morning. His charm and zeal were hard to leave behind. I remember being anxious to get home to see Balthasar when he was a kitten. It seems that this new fuzzball has a similar effect on me.