Friday, February 27, 2009

Kitten on the Keys

Getting a new kitten always requires a major overhaul of the way we live. One of the things it required this time was that I first move and then entirely get rid of the aquarium our hermit crabs have been living in for the past few years, as the kitten was not only occasionally napping on it (as in this photo), but also using it as a staging area from which to assault the top of the china cabinet and, hanging next to it, the bird cage.

As I was dismantling the aquarium and putting the crabs in a smaller terrarium that will fit on a shelf in our bathroom, I was thinking about Barbara Kingsolver's title essay for her volume High Tide in Tucson, and how she brings home a crab from the beach and makes a nice little home for it "on our kitchen counter right next to the coffeepot." When I find a hermit crab at the beach, it's the kind that can't live out of water, or it only wants the kind of food it's already used to, or it doesn't like the colorful variety of shells I provide and goes around naked until I find it one morning, motionless and stinking. Kingsolver's crab, however, evidently thrives and recreates a crab celebration of high tide in its new home while eating her garbage.

Okay. Maybe Kingsolver is a lot more relaxed about pets than I am, or maybe it's just that she doesn't have cats. If she had ever had a kitten, it would have spent part of the day lying on her laptop and she wouldn't have been able to write as much. At least not without getting her fingers batted for wiggling.

14 comments:

Unknown said...

That picture of the kitten on the keys is adorable. XDDDD I can imagine how frustrating it is, though.

FreshHell said...

Oh my - was he posed or is that real? Because that is the cutest thing ever. I am a SUCKER for kittens. Maybe you need a dog-scented mouse. I hope the cat hairs don't clog up your keyboard.

Jeanne said...

Oh, the aquarium photo is real, but the other one has been circulating around the internet for years; it just looks like my kitten. I hadn't thought of it, but it might be a good idea to go get one of the cans of compressed air that Ron keeps around here for keyboards!

TexasRed said...

Adorable -- you could post that last one on www.cuteoverload.com!

Jeane said...

That has to be the most adorable kitten photo I've ever seen. Look at how his legs are crossed! Our black cat, Irwin, often sleeps on his back, it always looks so funny and endearing.

Anonymous said...

I had a cat who used to sleep on top of the mouse cage -- exactly as your kitten is doing. I was never sure if he liked the hammocky way the top swung down, or if he just enjoyed tormenting the mice. They certainly can not have slept well with him up there!

Anonymous said...

The keyboard seems like a bed of perfect size for the kitty!

I adopted a kitty from SPCA as well. It took her a while to get settled into her favorite spot in the house, which is the chair next to the fireplace.

lemming said...

What would a cat do with a hermit crab? Between the claws and the shell... oh, I suppose it could be batted around as a toy.

Jeanne said...

Lemming: yes, definitely. The charm of the toy is that after the cat loses interest, the crab moves again, which starts the fun all over!

Ruth King said...

I don't even want to think about what my cats would do to a hermit crab.

Also, the kitten on the keyboard picture? Absolutely adorable.

Amy said...

Oh my gosh that photo is a crack-up!! ;)

Kathy W said...

That photo with the kitten on the laptop has got to be my favorite. Way to cute.

bermudaonion said...

I love the kitten on the laptop - I want to pick it up and cuddle it.

Nicole (Linus's Blanket) said...

Cutest picture in the world! I just saw it and I just had to say what everyone else said as well.