CAT!

Meet the newest member of my Argentine family! Full name Fernet, Trago Nacional aka Tragito. He joined our household last night, and he’s here to stay, provided he doesn’t fall off the balcony.

I wish I could say that after a long and thought out process of deliberation, I finally decided to get a cat. However, life doesn’t quite work out that smoothly. Yesterday evening my roommate Eli informed me that someone had posted on BAExpats that they had drunkenly picked up a cat outside the bar Sugar and taken him home. Said borracho soon realized upon sobering up that having a cat was not ideal and began looking for someone to take him. I had been considering getting a cat, but always with a “Well, I’ll think about it some more and then decide” kind of attitude.

Well, Eli set up a meeting for us with the cat-nabber that very night. We showed up at the apartment and met Kitty, and OH MY GOODNESS was he cute!!! He’s all black, but with a little salt n peppa action going on. Green eyes, HUGE ears, and gangly legs…swoon! We made the appropriate inquiries (male, no apparent fleas, probably 12-16 weeks old), and then Eli and I went to discuss names over drinks at Casa Bar and dinner at Cumaná (review coming soon!)

 

On our way home we called Sir Cat Snatcher and told him we’d take him!! He came down to our cab with little Gatito in hand, plus some food and litter, plonked him on my lap, and then we were off! We made it back to the apartment with no problems, and Tragito promptly began exploring every corner of the place with typical kittenish curiosity, including the balcony (immediate heart attack on my part: 5^th floor balcony plus silly kitten = disaster).

Bottom line: he is very adorable. He is also very friendly, which for me is a huge must, because I’ve had bad experiences with mean cats. I don’t think I could handle a cat that wasn’t affectionate (I take it personally), but luckily Tragito is possibly the nicest cat in the history of the world. I mean, he was yanked off the street by a drunk person, transported in a taxi to one apartment, then shipped off again to another apartment, all without use of a carrier, treats, etc, and he remains completely unfazed by it all.

He spent last night spazzing around the apartment with various ribbons and balls of newspaper, then at bedtime settled down on my bed for about 4 hours. At 4 am he woke up, decided it was playtime again and started chewing on my knee, at which point I profaned and flung him off the bed with my sheet. After that I don’t know where he went, until 7 am when he reappeared, leaping onto the bed about 6 inches from my face and scaring the mierda out of me. Seriously, I don’t think my heart has ever beat that loudly or quickly in my life. 

His attention span is about 2.4 seconds, and chews anything that moves including shoelaces, dresses, hair, ribbons, comforters, curtains, tiny Christmas tree ornaments. Apparently he slept all day today while I was at work, which is comforting…he won’t always be skitzing out and chewing my hair.

Anyway, Eli and I are very happy to have him in the apartment, and I’m glad we got to give a home to a little kitty that needed one. He isn’t super photogenic, but I’ll try to get some more shots of him that convey his lanky cuteness!!!