What's in a Name?

Here we are already the end of June and our little kitten has been with us over two months now and is growing like a weed.  Her name is Spirit Rose Ritchie-Keck.   I did not want to get another cat that was a silver-tipped tabby as that was what our beloved Appi was and I didn’t want comparison’s and thought it would be too easy to do that.   Of course, what did we get?  Yep, a silver-tipped tabby.  We stationed her in the smaller of the two bathrooms with her food, water, cat litter, blankets and of course toys during the introduction phase to our Baby Binkers.  On the second day I opened the bathroom to find a ball sitting in her water dish.  I have had many cats during my lifetime and the only cat who would put the ball in the water was our Appi.  When I spied the ball I looked at Kevin and said, “Look!  It’s like its Appi’s spirit telling us its okay. “ So Spirit she is and Kevin came up with her middle name of Rose. 

Like all of our pets, they have many nicknames.  Baby’s name is Binki Blue Ritchie-Keck and has nicknames of Baby, Binkers, Binker Blue, Nooper, naughty girl Keck and good girl Ritchie kitty to name a few.  So far Spirit has No No, naughty girl Keck kitty, little Juannelle (I resent that!), Noopi and Stop That.

Spirit had several littermates and was residing with about 12 older cats so she wasn’t at all scared of Baby.  Unfortunately, Baby wasn’t enamored with her at all.  Spirit frequently gets Baby in a headlock and bites and scratches trying to engage Baby in play.  Baby just hisses, tries to escape and occasionally will give Spirit a real good smack to stop her.  We do see progress, just today Baby was in bed with me cuddling under the blanket and Spirit located her and was actually washing Baby nicely.  They also lay close together at times.   Baby also introduced Spirit to how nice the basket of warm clothes fresh from the dryer is. 

If one gets a kitten or a puppy one has to be prepared for the “baby” stage and realize that to them EVERYTHING is a toy.  Electric cords, decorative items and rugs can all be dangerous.  Having enough toys and removing them from the source of danger and playing with them in a different location usually helps distract them from what they were doing.