This little lioness is Ashley Ann. She was adopted from the
Annapolis, Md SPCA at the same time as Billie Jo. She was also 8 weeks old. Although Ashley
is not "the brightest bulb on the tree", she will gladly "meow" an entire conversation with any
who will listen. She also has a habit of running full speed into the kitchen with no thought what
so ever as to how she is going to stop. She is our big, fuzzy, mostly Maine Coon kitty. Ashley Ann started out in much the same way as Tia and Billie. She was also up for
adoption in the kitten room at the SPCA. Bob had gone to the SPCA with the idea of adopting
another kitten, as a gift for Kathy. After much debating, he had already picked Billie Jo out, and
was on his way out of the adoption room to fill out the adoption papers. He just happened to
walk past a cage that had a cute tabby/calico kitten in it. The kitten was sound asleep in her litter
box. (Fortunately, she wasn't sleeping on a soiled area) The kitten eventually woke up and
flashed huge green innocent kitten eyes at him. She then proceeded to "work" him over, giving
him cute little "chirups", "peeps" and "mews" everytime he turned away. He was hooked, and
adopted both kittens.
Because we already had Tia Maria in residence, both kittens had to go immediately to the vet to
be checked out. Ashley checked out fine, except for the "worst case of ear mites" the vet had
ever seen. However, the ear mites were ruled not a problem, so Bob was sent home with a bottle
of ear mite medicine, and directions to simply put two drops in each kitten ear
Once home, both kittens were immediately put into quarantine, despite protests from a
somewhat snippy Tia, who wanted nothing more than to see the kittens go flying out the
window.
Bob and Kathy's next challenge was to get the ear drops into the kittens ears. After all, the
kittens were small, and only weighed about two pounds each. Bob and Kathy easily weighed
more than that, so they had a pretty good size advantage. Well that was the way it was supposed
to work anyway. Turns out, Ashley Ann had a couple of secret muscles that she used to close
her ear canal. The ear drops would go in, and two seconds later, Ashley would shake her head
and spray Kathy and Bob with the ear drops.
Ashley Ann eventually got rid of her ear mites. The kittens were also slowly introduced to
Tia, who did get used to the idea of having them around. (Especially when she found out that the
kittens would make good hockey pucks if she slapped them hard enough) She has since grown
into a beautiful, fluffy cat.
It never fails, some humans just can't leave well enough alone. Billie Jo, Tia Maria and I
were all happy in our house. We had our routine. We had Kathy and Bob fairly well trained to
do our bidding. Then it happened: Bob and Kathy got "homeless kitten disease".
Bob and Kathy and several other members of Bob's family had been feeding these outside/feral
cats for sometime. Tia, Billie and I didn't mind as long as these other cats didn't intrude on our
lives. Then it happened. One of these outside intruders came home with Kathy and Bob. They
tried to be slick about it and hide it from us. But we could see the signs: The door to the
quarantine room was shut tight. Bob and Kathy were going in and out of the quarantine room
alot, and most importantly, bowls of kitten food were going in that room and coming out empty.
Even I figured it out -- something furry was in that room and we didn't like it one bit.
After several days, the mysterious furry thing was released from the room. At first she was
afraid to leave "her" room. Us older cats were fine with that, except for one thing. She had the
yummy kitten food and we didn't . (Its a known cat fact that the other cats food is always better.)
Billie Jo, being the bravest, was the first to venture into the room to check out the food and the
furry creature. Unfortunately for Billie, the furry creature was in a playful mood, and pounced on
her.
Billie did not appreciate this, so she turned and ran.
Eventually, the furry creature came to be known as the Grey Ghost. Ghost not only worked
up the
nerve to come out of her room, she got extremely full of herself and started sticking her nose in
everywhere. She also started to expect the rest of us cats to accept her unconditionally. This was
when she pushed her luck. When she waltzed up to me, I was ready for her. I puffed up to my
full size, stuck the fur on my back straight up and let out my best hiss. (Considering that I am a
large, long haired cat, with 6 inch long whiskers, I can look pretty imposing) I let out another
long hiss, followed by a "don't mess with me" growl. Ghost didn't even blink! Instead she
pounced on me! I couldn't believe it! How could this little rug rat be so rude? So insolent?
Didn't she know the sacred cat rules? Didn't she have any respect for her elders? Apparently
not. Because not only did she do a full frontal tackle on me, than she chased me all through the
house. The only thing that saved me was when we hit the kitchen floor. I lost traction, spun out
and managed to bank off the trash can out of her way. Ghost, having never run on a slick
linoleum floor before, was really surprised at her sudden loss of mobility and promptly skidded
into the wall. While she was laying there, dazed, I made my get away.
By now I guess I'm starting to get used to the little brat. Although she still hogs the toys and
the food. But Tia and I have discovered that she's easy to get into trouble. Just the other day, all
I had to do was open one of the kitchen cupboards and Ghost went right in, and started pulling
Kathy's Tupperware (food storage containers) out and starting playing hockey with them. When
Kathy came in a saw Ghost playing with them, she "squealed with delite". I merely sat by and
watched the resulting commotion.
