Hello Kitty

We might be getting a kitten!

My Aunty's cats had kittens. She had two cats (sisters), who both got pregnant at the same time, and gave birth within a day of each other. So she now has 2 cats and 9 kittens.

Yeah.... came as a bit of a shock.

Especially to me. I thought the cats were both boys.

It does remind me of the whole Miss Joseph thing, but names 'Storm' and 'Sunshine' could hardly be described as being gender specific, and apparently cat's willies are hard to find even when you're looking for them (they have no idea how many girl kittens and boy kittens there are).

So anyway, now my 3 little cousins are trying to come up with 9 more weather-related names for all the kittens, like 'Foggy', and 'Misty' and 'Tornado'. I suggested 'Sunny Spells', and 'Smoggy', but they weren't too impressed. But then I came up with 'Tsunami', and went back to being their 'cool older cousin'.

I've always hated cats. Well, not always, but ever since I witnessed our beloved first pet, Stevie the Guinea Pig, being butchered by a cat in the garden back in '97 (I was too traumatised to help him out, but I still feel personally responsible, and I'm still racked with guilt) I've been convinced that cats are evil. To make matters worse, I had to go and be a bridesmaid later that day, and act happy and try not to show any of the earlier trauma in the wedding photographs.

However, watching those tiny little kittens squirming around in their big cardboard box kinda softened me a bit...

There has been a glut of new babies recently, which has made me feel a bit broody, but since my mum is too old, and I'm too young, I'm having to make do with playing with everyone elses babies when I'm around them.

So if we got a kitten....... thats kinda like a baby.......

And as I was explaining to my Dad, I think this is an important healing process for me. I may finally be able to let go of the guilt I feel about Stevie.

Because it seems to be like a circle; This is the same aunty who's wedding I was a bridesmaid at the day that Stevie was killed by a cat that looks like one of the mummy cats that has kittens who also look like that evil cat that killed Stevie.

That is too much of a coincidence for it not to be a healing process, don't you think?

The kittens aren't old enough to leave their mummies yet. They need another 8 weeks.

But maybe thats a good thing, because there's a bit of resistance towards the kitten at the moment, and I'll need some time to wear people down.

I want it (which, you'd have thought, is a big enough miracle to prove that it's meant to be...), my Dad wants it, my brother wants it.... even my Mum kinda wants it (another huge miracle - she hated them too...and one of the kittens peed on her when she was holding it), but my sister, who used to be the biggest cat lover in the family, really doesn't want us to get it.

And she's being a bit cryptic as to why she doesn't want us to get it. I think one of the reasons was that she thought Honey would hate the kitten and feel like it was replacing her, and then be heartbroken and die.

But I don't think Honey will die. She's very tolerant. We do loooads of weird stuff to her, and she doesn't care.

Like the time we put wellies on her, for example:

Does she look bothered? I think not.

Or the time we put swimming goggles on her:

She even looks like she was enjoying that.

So I'm sure that a little kitten won't bother her.

I explained that to Joy, but she's not convinced.

She woke me up this morning to tell me me that she dreamed that we got the kitten, called it Tigger (yep, I've chosen the name already. It was either that or Tequila, which my mum objected to on principle), and then it died right in front of us.

Whatever.

That won't happen. It was just a bad dream.

I want that kitten!!!!

I told them that we need it. This time next year, I'll be at university, and we'll need something to take my place.

A cat is just the kind of high-maintenance thing that would be appropriate for replacing someone like me.