Just call him Mellow Yellow

Tig3 is the most laid back cat I have ever had. I keep saying that I’ve won the Kitty Lotto, because I have. After eleven years of one cat who absolutely did not let you do a thing to him that he needed, like give him medicine or clip his claws, or even clean gunk out of his fur—and eleven years of a cat so timid that she literally runs away from me if I step towards her too quickly—it is simply wonderful to have a cat who is quickly earning “Fearless” as one of his names.

Gracie is afraid of the broom. When Tig was less than nine weeks old, I took the broom to the office to clean up the bits of cat litter that escaped the litterbox. Tig thought the broom was just the neatest new toy. I can’t sweep if he’s in the room any more. I had to hide the broom. He was destroying the straw.

Gracie and Tig were both afraid of the hair dryer. Tig heard the hair dryer and ran away, then came back to see what the noise was. That’s what he does. He runs from the source of a new, loud noise, then sneaks back behind me and checks it out. Once he determines that it isn’t going to hurt him, he does the kitty equivalent of a shrug and gets on with his business.

Tonight, we had an intense downpour with flashes of lightning and thunder. Due to my crappy management company, my gutters are full of pine needles again, so the excess water pours down onto my living room picture window. It’s loud. Tig investigated it. I thought he might enjoy seeing the source of the water, so I picked him up and opened the front door. He was fascinated with the rain pouring down, and unmoved by the lightning and thunder. I put him down and went to get a towel, because the water comes in through the window frames. When I got back to the window, Tig was—sigh—drinking the rainwater in the frame. (Which is why I just laugh at idiots who feed their cats bottled water. They’ll drink any water, anywhere, no matter how disgusting it may seem to us.)

I really did win the kitty jackpot with this Tig. It’s like I cashed out all my kitty karma and got the best possible cat I could find. And he’s showing all the signs of growing up to be a great big goofball, too.

Time for our evening play session before bed. His favorite toy: Rolled up wads of paper, just like his predecessor’s. And he fetches them, too.

I’m going to have to add “Lotto” or “Winner” to his list of names, I think.