Kitten Update

I wrote the following for my creative writing class:

When the kittens are bad, I remind them that we saved their lives. We rescued them hours before rainstorms hit our area and flooded the homes in Dry Creek. They reward us by scratching up our turquoise armchair and ripping apart our tissues, toilet paper, and paper towels.

Beta is the cute one, which makes Alpha the unloved one. Beta is a fluffy, gray and white, green-eyed, little faced, adorable kitten. Alpha looks nothing like her; he has exotic Pharaoh cat markings in brown and black, slanted yellow eyes, and a long distinguished face. We are almost positive they are brother and sister, though. They were dumped together outside the courthouse where I work. They act like siblings, curling up together in a way that stranger cats just don’t. And they share one characteristic: six toes on each front paw. Kittens with opposable thumbs! They are like humans; they are extra-evolved. They are polydactyl.

Okay, they are inbred.

My boyfriend Learner loves Beta better. She follows him around. He must carry bacon in his pockets surreptitiously. Or she really likes the way he scratches her hindquarters.

Cassie, our first houseguest, loved Beta better. We set up the foldout couch for Cassie with a warning that the cats might sleep on her head. They didn’t, as it turns out, but Alpha did put his face up to hers and stared at her while she slept.

Alpha likes to jump on my back like I am a piece of climbing furniture, a stepping-stone to some countertop or upper window. Alpha can jump very high on his own, but he prefers to use me. Beta learned that she cannot follow Alpha everywhere he goes. Still, she doesn’t use me as a staircase; she sits patiently and looks cute and waits. I or someone else will always help her.

Beta loves to curl up in people’s laps: my lap, Learner’s lap, Cassie’s lap. Alpha takes a couple of minutes to warm up to people. He might ignore people for even longer, but he gets jealous when Beta is picked up and carried around and cuddled. Since Alpha never gets picked up first, he purrs at the slightest encouragement. He purrs when I call his name, even before I pick him up.

To be fair, the Vet likes Alpha better because Alpha is brave. Alpha takes his shots like a man. Alpha comes out of the cat carrier on purpose.

Alpha might have survived the storms.