Meet Penelope!

Can you believe it? Another cat! US! WTF!

About a year ago, this beautiful gray striped cat started coming around, and I started to fall for her. I started putting out food for her and that made her a regular visitor. Other than free food though, she wanted nothing else to do with me.

I put a food and water bowl out on the porch. However, if I was out on the porch, she would high tail it out of there, food or not. Slowly she started to tolerate me. Keep in mind, this process took us almost a year! At first, she would just go down a few steps when I went to the porch to refill the food bowl. Then, she'd stay on the porch, she'd just move back a bit. She finally got to the point of putting her front paws on my door and meowing until one of us would refill the bowl or for me to go out and play with her! Yeah, by now I had named her and we all know that is never a good thing with a wild animal! At the end, I'd sit on the porch, she'd crawl up on my lap, go forehead to forehead with me, nose to nose, and yes, I was head over heels in love with her!

Ron and I talked about it. We both fell for her. Could we add her to our family? I had to. Thankfully, Ron agreed.

We tried to bring her in the front door a couple of weeks ago. She and Benny were nose to nose in the door way and for awhile, they didn't move. Then, Penelope backed out of the house. After a couple of attempts, Penelope was in the house! That did NOT go well. Then again, I had no idea what to expect!

I called my friends, Larry and Linda. Larry answered the phone and I told him what I did and I told him all hell was breaking loose and I didn't know what to do!

Larry: There will be a lot of hissing.
Me: Yep, they're doing that.
Larry: There will be some growling and meowing.
Me: Yep, they're doing that.
Larry: There will be some paw batting and some chasing.
Me: Yep, they're doing that.
Larry: They are doing everything they should be doing. Let them go at it until they figure it out!
Me: WTF!

This is hard. It was absolutely breaking my heart! Finally, Penelope went to stand at the front door so I let her out. That was all she and I could take.

We did this for a few days when I finally had a great idea. I went and got her a litter box and food bowls. I cleaned them and set them up in the basement for her. Then, I brought her in the side door and we went straight to the basement. I introduced her to her food, her litter and I put a blanket on the floor to keep her off of the cold cement should she want to stay down there. Benny was terrified of the basement after all, so I knew the basement would be her own. This is Penelope on her first night with us, exploring the basement. Her eyes aren't so cloudy in real life, that's just bad photography!


What I feel is unusual about Penelope is her tail. I always thought it looked like a raccoon's tail! And now that I can examine her closer, her tail is also flat! I don't know if that's normal in a cat, but it's flat anyway. I meant to ask the vet about that but I forgot. More on the vet later.


She explored to her heart's content and then she followed me upstairs. That's when all hell broke loose. Once again with the hissing, the spitting, the growling. Yeah, now I know where the term "cat fight" came from! But, we followed Larry's advice and we let them at it. When she had enough of fighting with him, she'd run back to the safety of the basement. She found her a nice soft spot up high by the air vent, she used her litter box from the very first night, I was as happy as happy can be. I couldn't ask for more, we just had to be patient until they worked it out.

Saturday morning, Ron and I packed her up and took her to the vet. She went right into the carrier and was jiggy with it until the car started to move. She wasn't happy about that part, but as long as the car wasn't moving, she was content to lay in her carrier.

According to the vet, Penelope is 11.6 pounds, between four and five years old, she is front declawed and she has already been spayed. Obviously, she was a family pet at one time. I have no idea what happened as she spent her days on my porch and the nights on my neighbor's porch. Anyway, she was deemed healthy, her feline leukemia test was negative and she has gotten all of her vaccinations since we can't be sure if she's ever had them before. With her clean bill of health, I can now officially call her MY cat!!

She is a very loving cat, who is very content to be in my lap and be petted. Yeah, she and I are going to get along just fine. If only her and Benny could get along!

Sunday morning, Benny took matters into his own hands. Er, paws! As I went down to the basement for my Penelope time, Benny followed me down there! Holy crap, you'd have thought World War 3 just broke out! She was NOT happy that this little guy invaded her space!

Again, Ron and I had to let them work it out so for the most part, we stayed upstairs while Benny got over his fear of the basement and just bothered the hell out of Penelope all day Sunday!

Keep in mind, Ron and I take time every day to go down to the basement and interact with Penelope. She comes up into the house but will only put up with Benny so long before she would hustle back to the basement. So, Sunday she had no choice but to put up with him.

He'd chase her all over, then she found a new spot to get away from him! Ron has a bunch of boxes stacked up on the basement, most of them with parts in them for his work. She picked one stack of boxes, made it to the top one and settled on the bubble wrap inside of the box.


Now, for a kitten who was terrified of the basement and refused to use his litter box when I moved HIS down there twice, suddenly decided that he had no problem taking a crap in HER litter box!


It's a good thing he won't be reading this blog after posting this picture! But, Benny in Penelope's litter box did NOT make her happy as she curled up farther into her box.


I've had my sister Cathie on speed dial and Larry and Linda and between the three of them, they have so helped us through this. It's not all wine and roses her yet, but we're getting there.

Penelope is home to stay. She is off the street, and one day she'll be comfortable enough to stay out of the basement and come up into the house and maybe even take a crap in Benny's litter box! We can only hope.

I predicted a long time ago that my life's path would take me to being that crazy cat lady at the end of the block with a gazillion cats. I'm on my way with two! Ok, I really plan on stopping with the two of them. (Honest, honey. I'm done!)

It's Sunday evening as I'm writing this, and this is what Benny looks like after a day of bugging the crap out of Penelope!


Poor kitty had a tough day!

So there you have it. We have increased the number in our family by one and my eyes are killing me. I am back on the Benedryl but that's ok, they are both worth it. Welcome to the family, Penelope!