My city kitty just loves her new home

Well, it looks like kitty Shiloh is going to have to share the limelight. As you all know, he has been the star of many of my columns. Now he is going to have a co-star. Her name is Sierra, the kitten I brought home on May 23, and I am head-overheels in love with her, as I am with all of my fur babies. Sierra is the epitome of love. She is affectionate and strong and confident and sweet and not afraid of anything. I think she’s my role model.

She’s like an appendage. She does not want to be more than three inches away from me. As I write this, she is curled up on my lap, sometimes popping up to take a little stroll around the keyboard. It looks like she’s typing a foreign language. Maybe she’s e-mailing a friend. Maybe she needs to get her own column.

We’re in the adjustment period now, and it is going surprisingly well.

At first I kept Sierra in the bedroom, to give Shiloh a chance to make peace with the fact that he now has a roomie. I gradually started letting her out for short peri- ods of time, to introduce them to each other.

It was touch-and-go there at first. Shiloh was not a happy camper. He hissed, she cowered, and back into the bedroom she went. But it is getting better. Shiloh just watches her as she investigates every nook and cranny. He is probably wondering “What is this new life form that has come hither? If it’s a mouse I’ve got my work cut out for me. This one is big.”

But there’s no more hissing, and I now know he will not hurt her. So she has the run of the house.

I think everyone should live life like a kitten. Sierra is curious about everything, and each moment is an adventure. No time to be bored. The days are loaded with delights. “It’s the simple things that make a life,” I think she would say. “Like rolling around on a paper bag or chasing a bottle cap.” (I, personally, do not feel the need to do those things.) She’sa busy girl. I will hear a lamp crashing to the floor or things flying off the table. I always know where she is.

Sierra came from the streets of Bridgeport to the home of

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her foster mother, where she stayed in one room with her two siblings. So my 960 square-foot home a modest abode by anyone’s standards must seem like a mansion to her. I can just picture her thinking that today she will saunter over to the west wing (she doesn’t know yet that there is only one wing), and it is bound to be a long journey so she better pack some snacks and liquid refreshment.

Of course, in addition to carefully hovering (yes, I admit that I am hovering) over my peanut-sized girl, making sure that she is safe, I also make sure that Shiloh knows that he is loved as much as ever and is not being replaced. I worry about stuff like that. I don’t think he’s worried, though. He seems pretty confident.

So all is well at 319 Madison Road. We’re just having a peck of fun over here.

@#%&!! That’s Sierra saying hi.

You can contact Diana Carr at 860-349-9542 or princessdi7@sbcglobal.net.