Cats Updates:

Kosya was nervous all day - whenever I tried to approach him, he'd hiss at me in this wild, wild way, not typical of him at all. I got really tired of it at some point and, since the young cat (still nameless) was doing everything to enter the room where Kosya was, I decided to let him in and see what'd happen. He tried to hunt Kosya's tail at first, then made a few friendly, curious attempts to come close - but Kosya was hissing non-stop, perhaps imagining that he was being attacked by some huge beast. But when the young one lay still (extremely close to Kosya), Kosya was relatively calm and acted as if he was alone in the room.

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By the end of the evening, Kosya must have realized that whatever this other creature was, it didn't act too aggressively and wasn't dangerous, so he decided to find out more about it. He jumped off the couch, did a little loud purr and a meow, and walked in the direction of the young one. But when they were right next to each other, the young one jumped up and hit Kosya softly in the face. That was so disappointing - Kosya was being friendly now, but the young one didn't trust him anymore.

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When mama took the young one with her for the night, Kosya napped very briefly and then went looking around again, with that same friendly purr and meow. He didn't find anything but, eventually, reached the bathroom: after examining his toilet, he decided he didn't want to use it anymore, as it smelled of the other cat. I had to spend quite a while, trying to convince him to change his mind, and finally he did.

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I'm getting very upset when Kosya's cranky because it reminds me of the time when he himself was a little intruder, 12 years ago, and our first cat, Katsosha, was very distressed and displeased. Katsosha died at the age of 16, on Nov. 23, 1993, and I'm still grieving his death, because I grew up with him (we brought him from the Republic of Georgia in 1977, when I was 3) and he was like a human being. I wasn't in Ukraine when he died. And even though Kosya is the most precious cat in the world now, I still believe that if it hadn't been for him, Katsosha would've lived a few years longer. So now it all reminds me of that time, only Kosya has taken Katsosha's place.

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We would really like for the young one to stay - but it would depend on whether he and Kosya become friends.

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Kosya has a hobby: the toilet we humans are using. He can sit near it for hours, waiting till someone comes in and flushes it for him. Since he's blind, he's probably drawn by the sound of the water and an occasional splash that ends up on his paw - I'm sure he doesn't even realize it's water; he probably imagines it as a kind of a mouse or a bird, and is trying to catch it. (A toilet in this part of the world is different from its US counterpart: it flushes like a waterfall, not like a vortex, and is thus a lot more fun for my silly blind cat.)

Tonight, Kosya spent over an hour by the toilet - and I was running from my room to flush the water for him all this time, every three minutes or so. I was doing it because it was making Kosya happy and careless. Whenever I tried to take him to my room, he was beginning to hiss, and that was breaking my heart. So I helped him play with the toilet until I felt he was getting exhausted; then I dragged him away to my room, despite his protests.

Cat people are crazy.