Red Dirt Cajun Cat Vivienne

Vivienne the Foster Cajun Cat

Times get tough.

They're tough now.

As Robert Frost wrote, "Home is the place that when you have to go there, they have to take you in".

That applies to cats a well.

First it was Veto. Veto was our oldest son's cat. Marriage, moving, and his mother's overgrown fondness for his cat meant when had to leave, his cat stayed.

Visa, my cat, just showed up as a small calico kitten eating bugs and following me around like a puppy. Sort of like my wife did when I first met her. (no, not the bugs part) I've always been a true sucker for sweetness.

Then there was Hektor (with a "K"). Hektor was destined for a non-kill animal shelter. Unfortunately my youngest son was asked to deliver him the next morning. Hektor never left of course. My youngest has the softest and largest heart in the family.

So when the youngest had to move away of course Hektor could not leave the wide open spaces of his home and yard much less his friends Veto and Visa.

Louisianan has decided that higher education and other such luxuries need not be continued to be funded at current levels. So my daughter and spouse had to divest their household of cost and responsibilities in order to eat. Thus came to us our foster cat Vivienne.

Vivienne is 9-10 months old, still a kitten. She is a long haired calico and cute as can be. She has been living inside a home with two older boy cats and she has an attitude, and of course the behavior of a kitten. (Did I mention she has a fluffy tail like a skunk's?)

So now we are integrating her into our cat household. She has been isolated from the other felines in rooms upstairs. We have introduced her to the older cats through the doors and windows and an occasional live visit under highly controlled circumstance. We have let her roam the entire house sans other cats and leave her smells all over the place so they could get used to her presence. So far so good.

I think she will have more issues with the older cats than they will with her. She sleeps in my lap sometimes, but generally she is on the move, up, down, over, under, run, jump, climb, chase, escape. My oldest cat is eleven years old, Veto. Veto just looks at her with disgust. Visa who is about eight years old pretends that she is not there, at least until Vivienne comes over to play which Visa interprets as attack and flees. Hektor who only about 3 years old looks at her and says hey gal what's up?

I figure that Vivienne qualifies as a Cajun Cat. Pretty soon I'll introduce her to the red dirt in the back yard. Our cats are in/out cats and so Vivienne will be too.



The other night when my youngest son slept over in Vivienne's room, it seems she 'made' him play with her late into the night and then slept cuddled up on the bed beside him.

I think as she settles in and learns the relationships and the smells she will do fine. If the daughter waits to long to take her back, it might not happen. Sorry girl.