Our new kitten, part two

The kitten has settled into the household without any hassles. I thought it would take a couple of weeks of gating him off in a separate room before we were able to have him out. Instead it took two days before he was having regular visits to the rest of the house, and on the third day I found him sleeping on my bed with the other two cats.

He’s not territorial at all. He really, really wants the other cats to play with him, but he knows the older cat only barely tolerates him (she has never attacked him, but I guess the way she looks at him is intimidating enough) and the younger cat is skittish of him.

It turns out the cerebellar hypoplasia isn’t that big of a deal. In fact, 95% of the time he’s fine, fine, fine. I’ve only seen him tremor a few times, and at other times he might stand with his legs splayed out, or stagger a bit. But in effect he’s just klutzy. Klutzy and very attached to humans. The people who fostered him must have had him in-arms and talked to him constantly, because he just loves being with people.

He learned immediately that TV time is prime cuddle time,

even if he happens to fall asleep because TV is boring.

Of course, sleeping is good when you have someone to cuddle up to.

And have I mentioned how much he wants the other cats to love him?

(Psst — if you’re from the animal shelter, both those guys came to us through you. This is the perfect picture to put in your newsletter. Just saying.)

Oh, and that name thing. We still didn’t have a name for days, despite everyone’s awesome suggestions in the combox. Finally I lost my temper and said I was going to call the kitten Seattle until everyone buckled down and came up with a good name for him. And after much arguing, they did.

The kitten is now Orion. Our mighty hunter.