Cat Days of Autumn

Halfway through October, and I’m still wondering where September went. Today is the first day this month I’ve looked out the window and seen anything resembling autumn. A storm front came through yesterday, bringing with it periods of high winds. A few leaves in the trees, up to now reluctant to release their grip on summer, were finally convinced to live up to the name of “Fall”. The walnut trees, ordinarily bare by now, finally parted company with their leaves in earnest. The rest of the trees remain predominantly green and only gave up a few of their furthest gone leaves. They still hang onto the remainder of their coverage the same way I hang onto a blanket on a chilly morning. It’s my understanding that our area can expect another big, windy storm in the next few days, so more leaves will be pulled from the boughs before they get a chance to get around to changing color (unless they do it soon). Fall foliage season looks like it’s going to be a non-event this year.

I have a new foster cat. Meet Emerson.

Emerson is two years old, pure white. His right eye is ice blue, and his left is mint green. I’ve tried to get pictures that show this, but without a flash his eyes come out the same color on my camera, and with a a flash … well, see for yourself:

Weird, n’est pas? Emerson had already been through Cat Tales once, but was returned by his adopted family because of his extraordinary ability to break and enter (although in this case, the term would be best rephrased as “enter and break”). He reputedly did massive damage to their house during his two week tenure there, ending up with the straw-that-broke-the-camel’s-back episode of his jumping into a pot of chili that was simmering on the stove. He may be gorgeous, but Emerson is apparently not a cat for the faint of heart or the avid Waterford collector.

And lest I forget to mention it, Emerson is deaf as a doorknob. He does have a voice though, which is a fairly strange combination of meow and yodeling.

He and Indiana (who is still fostering with me at the moment) have failed to come to terms with sharing the foster room. Both are lap cats, and I’ve had two minor cat fights in my lap over who had right of eminent domain. Both times Emerson seemed to win hands down. I feel badly for Indy, but intervening will only make matters worse. Punishing Emerson will only cause him to transfer his frustration back on Indiana. If I go out of my way to give Indiana extra attention that will also give Emerson cause to attack. I’ll give them a week or so to sort it out, but I’ve already let the person who places the foster cats know that we may need to find new accommodations for one of these boys. Our shelter currently has no more room in the inn though, which is why I’m doubling up on unrelated fosters at the moment. The altercations between the two boy-cats only seem to occur when I’m in the room, so I’ve hopes that they will eventually either resolve their differences or at least come to some sort of mutual understanding if I just stay out of their way. Right now, though, a stand-off without bloodshed is the most I can hope for.

Indiana remains his unusually photogenic self though. I leave you with a final shot of Indy, gazing at me while Emerson twines about my legs. Gotta love that tail – it’s long enough to drape around his side and across his front feet.