We’re finally getting around to blogging our Tito. Not that we’ve neglected him, but we’ve been so busy having fun with him we don’t think to stop and document him, so we’re doing it now.
We refer to him by many names, but from early on, he was our “bullet boy” because he moves faster than you might think, particularly when he’s trying to follow you out onto the lanai or outside the house. He’s fast!
We adopted him from the Maui Humane Society on November 6, 2019. We went there after we lost Truffle, hoping to find someone to fill the hole in our hearts she created when she left us so suddenly.
We went out to male cat area first, but didn’t find anyone there, so we wandered to the females. Some of the cats came up to us and we liked a few, but no one stood out. We were looking for someone who was gentle and laid back, as Mele was having a really hard time grieving as well, and we wanted someone to be able to comfort her as well.
After a while, I noticed a small grey and white kitten asleep on a small trampoline in the middle of the mix. I picked her up and held her, and she looked up at me with sleepy, but bright eyes, and reached a paw up toward my face. I knew this was the one.
We found out she was a he, and he was in the girls’ cage because he had been fixed and the boys were beating up on him. Given that he was fixed and had his shots, we were able to take him home that day.
They told us he was part of a litter that had been found and brought in. The good samaritan probably thought they were abandoned, but most likely, their mom had just gone out to hunt and would have come back. They said that happens a lot. He was fostered to put a little weight on him and was brought back in when he was ready to be adopted. They called him Rob.
Tito’s Vitals:
Born: August 8, 2019 (most likely)
Adopted: November 6, 2019
Color: Grey and White
Weight: 4 lbs.
When we first got him, he slept a lot. In fact, he slept most of the time. We almost missed him altogether at the Humane Society because he was asleep while the other cats were running around trying to get our attention. I suspect he just didn’t get a moment’s rest because the boys were beating him up all the time and he needed to make up a deficit. As soon as he had his fill of sleep though, he showed his true nature. He thunders around the house constantly and has a serious case of FOMO. In addition to “bullet boy” we call him “rocket tongue” because he “bullets” up to something and sticks his tongue in it before we can even make a move to stop him.
He’s extremely smart, and so fascinated by his discoveries of the world. It’s such a joy to watch him learn about the most ordinary things. He was obsessed with fabrics, chasing rags around when we were wiping the counter, or trying to climb up our clothes, or pulling curtains off the rods. To this day, he fishes dirty socks from our laundry baskets and we find them all over the house. Among other things, we call him our sock thief.
Now he’s obsessed by plastic bags, much to our chagrin. He fishes them out of our office trash cans and drags them around the house, sometimes onto the bed, waking us up so we can play with him.
Speaking of play, he never seems to get enough. He learned how to fetch early, and was obsessed with it. We started with wadded up twist ties from grocery vegetables because they were small enough that he could carry them in his mouth. Then he moved on to doing the same thing with the wand toys with the feathers on the end. His current game is to catch the feathers and carry them in his mouth to a favorite “home base” under the dining table, where he collects other toys and pieces of fabric from Kathy’s sewing projects. Inevitably, these get eaten up by Roomba, who we have to rescue on a regular basis.
He’s wormed his way into our hearts quickly. We love him to death.