Introducing Le chat 2

So we got a new cat. We had been thinking about it for a long time, since Le chat sometimes seems lonely when we're both out working (she greets us at the door and follows us around the apartment, meowing. We think she is telling us about her day). Then I wrote a story about a local SPCA that is full to the brim with animals, and since our one-bedroom apartment won't support a big dog, we looked for a cat.

Le chat 2 is somewhere around 8 years old, although our vet thinks he may be younger. He spent the majority, if not all, of his life outside, and needed to be neutered when he got to the shelter. He was a little rough, but settled into indoor life beautifully. He's incredibly gentle with us and with our other cat, and does this thing that S describes as a "cuddle-seeking missile" when he puts his head down and heads right for the nearest set of legs so he can get your attention. He sleeps on our bed, right up at our shoulders between S and I.

We thought he was a breed called a Scottish Fold, which would explain the cute folded-over ears, but our vet said his ears look like he's had a lot of ear infections and ear mites over his life, so with no medical treatment it could be that his ears are like that because he was just so sick. It could also be that he had frostbite that made his ears fold over. Either way, it was undoubtedly painful, and it's incredibly easy for him to get infected ears.

We are fighting an infection right now. Our gentle little guy has to endure having q-tips jammed into his ears twice a day to clean them, followed by a round of ear drops, and then by an antibiotic pill shoved down his throat. The vet spoke softly to him as she cleaned them at his appointment, telling him that it would be okay and that she knew he didn't deserve to be so sick.

He's not happy with any of this, but we're hoping that he'll be better after a couple of weeks. Mostly we're relieved that we could give him a home and hopefully a better life than whatever he faced when he lived outside. All animals deserve that.