It’s a galaxy. She also happens to be my kitten. I adopted her in August after she was abandoned by her mother outside the building at work. We first spotted the kittens and their mother around June. We started to leave food out for them and gradually we saw them more often, though they still ran away if a human got too close. A couple months later we started seeing the kittens alone, without mom. We continued to leave food out for them and made our presence known more often. Gradually, over time, we were able to get close without causing them to run away.
At that point we decided to try and catch them. The first one caught was, if memory serves, a female called Cosmo (though she got another name when her adoptive ‘parents’ too her home). If I recall correctly, she was adopted by a person in another department. Next up was Lily, named after Lily Potter. She went home with Margot, the library assistant.
Finally came the day when we saw Andromeda outside by the door. Margot and I went outside and gradually coaxed her out of the bushes. She let us grab her and hold her without putting up much of a fight. I think she’d reached the stage where she was curious about everything, so we brought her inside and put her in a cage in a vacant office until I could arrange a visit to the vet. I wanted to have her checked out before I brought her home for the first time. She took to using a litter box fairly well; although we did discover she didn’t like the pine pellet litter.
She checked out fine at the vet and got her first round of shots. Then I took her home. She spent the first day or so huddled up in the bathroom. She seemed very nervous; though when I sat in the bathroom she crawled up to me to cuddle. Gradually she got used to living in my apartment and seems to have finally grown fond of living with me. She’s also grown in general. When I took her to the vet for the first time she weighed just over three pounds. In fact, she used to be small enough to walk around my neck and shoulders with ease. At the last vet visit a few weeks ago, she was over five pounds, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s over six by now. She’s also a bit too big to stand on my shoulders now, though she doesn’t mind being worn as a scarf.
Andromeda is a hyperactive monster, and I wouldn’t have her any other way. She’s also a cuddle bug and loves to snuggle up in my lap or on the couch next to me when I get home from work. She goes absolutely ballistic about her mouse toys. I can throw it for her and she’ll chase after it and bring it right back to me. I’m glad I got her when I did as I fear if we’d been later, it would have been too late to ‘mold’ her into a good house pet. You can see a few pictures of her over in the sidebar on the right, the full gallery can be found on my Flickr account.
As a side note, I was very hesitant to get a cat. The primary reason is that I’m allergic to cats. Thankfully, modern medicine has made that less of an issue. The other reason was responsibility. It was a big step for me to be responsible for another life, but I’ve progressed nicely. I’m looking forward to spending many years with Andromeda (named by one of our faculty, but I liked the name so I stuck with it — I call her Rommie for short after the Andromeda Ascendant; yes I’m a sci-fi geek). I think she made a wonderful addition to my life.
