The Kitten, plus
Disclaimer: The contents of this blog are my own personally and do not in any way reflect the opinion of the Peace Corps or the U.S. Government.

Just when I was starting to think she wasn't going to call and I must have misunderstood my gazda mother, she called me last night at quarter to nine. I said I'd be right over to pick up the kitten, although it could have waited til morning.

She greeted me with a big boquet of flowers from her garden and a zuchini the size of a baseball bat. And in a cardboard box, a little black and white kitten so small it's tail still comes to a point. She instructed me to take it home right away and wash it with shampoo, which I did, and only afterward while drying it off did I discover I didn't just get a kitten. My kitten has fleas.

I was planning on leaving the kitten in the cardboard box in the kitchen overnight anyway. And He/she's not getting out of the kitchen until he/she proves effectively litter trained. Despite the quarentine I was still up all night basically waiting for morning so I could go out and buy a flea shampoo - and after two more baths this morning I am tired, hungry, and had one unhappy kitten on my hands.

Later I'll be returning to the pet store for an anti-flea medication which gets in the bloodstream I'm told. You just can't tell a cat that you're bathing it in the sink for it's own good. And on top of that, today had to be a day when we have no hot water in town. So I boiled it's pillow case it spent the night with last night. Washed everything I was wearing and scrubbed down the little feline. Poor thing. I haven't even had it 24 hours and I feel like all I've done is been told what a bad mother I am for making it suffer!

When you inquire as to the name of the cat, I have to be honest and say it's too young to know if it's a boy or a girl. But I have a feeling it's a boy and in that case I feel a little funny about it. I've always imagined that if I had a cat it would be a girl. Maybe it's because all the dogs I've ever had have been boys I think of cats as girls and dogs as boys. But we'll see. I have two names picked out and soon I will let you know.

In the meantime we've graduated from rice boiled in milk to canned kitten food and so far she/he approves because there is quite an appetite there. When she'/he's not sitting in the corner of her/his cardboard box sulking and crying because I made it get wet.