Tuesday 2 August 2011
Kitsune
My lovely 14 year old cat, Schwa, died last year, about two weeks before my brother, so I haven't felt ready to take on the responsibility or, quite honestly, the love of another pet. Until now. This past year has been the first time I’ve been without a cat since I was about 12 years old, so given that I’ve got all these new beginnings going on, I thought I should start to look at re-homing a needy feline.
Meet Kitsune - Kitsu for short. (He came to me named Paddy, but I’ve renamed him, as he's only just a year old, I think he'll cope!)
'Kitsune' means fox in Japanese - also in folklore a mischievous fox spirit - and as he's half persian with a magnificent twitchy ‘brush’ and an incredibly mischievous nature, it seems perfect. 'Kitsu' was an old Japanese word for the sound of a fox bark.
I re-homed Kitsu for a lovely couple who are moving to London to work and whose landord won't let them take a cat. I went to meet him (and them) yesterday to see if we would get on. He hissed and bit me, so it was a done deal!
He was dropped off this morning with a wonderful assortment of toys and food and an amazing plug in cat aromatherapy thing to calm him down (it works! boy, it works, I’ve been chilled all day!) It was an emotional handover.
I made him a little Echino mouse stuffed with catnip as a welcome present. He has spent most of the day alternating between batting the mouse around my sitting room and hiding behind the sofa.
I know how he feels.