Serving Southern Jefferson County in the Great State of Montana

Column: Stop it Jerusha!!!!! Just Stop!!!!

A few weeks ago in an editorial I mentioned the tiny kitten I found while walking to the post office. In a short amount of time, Lil Jerusha has very much become a part of our family and has gone from a sick and abandoned kitten, to a rambunctious fireball that moves through the house like a hurricane. She certainly has her sweet and loving moments, but most of the time she is a blur that will only rest when she is exhausted to the point she can no longer move. She might even go past that point. I’m not sure where she gets the energy, but I would love to have some of it, especially when putting the paper together on a Tuesday.

While all of the humans in the house have enjoyed the new addition, it has not been quite as smooth for our six-year-old cat Peaches. He has been around a few dogs during his life, but this is the first time he has had a cat in the house for an extended amount of time and he is so confused about the situation.

It probably doesn’t make it any easier that in her own strange way the Jerusha looks up to him and tries to imitate everything he does. Peaches is very territorial and loves to sleep on a white blanket at the edge of my bed. As soon as Jerusha saw this, she waited for him to get down and as soon as he left the room, she hopped up and took his favorite place. When Peaches saw her laying there he refused to get back in the spot and is now trying to sleep right beneath my legs and unfortunately I move around a lot and a few times he’s been accidentally kicked off the bed.

Peaches then proceeded to go to his cat condo for a new “comfortable” space. As soon as he got down, she went right up and he was not happy about this either.

If he stretches a certain way, she will quickly imitate. She will be given her own special kitten food, but as soon as she sees him wrap up eating, she will go right over to his food and dig in.

The first few days of this were not easy on Peaches, but he is getting better. I’m sure he is still annoyed because a six-year-old cat is probably not too fond of butt sniffing, constant swats at his tail, and her taking over his life, but I’ve noticed in the past few days they have been playing.

Being an older cat, Peaches will only play for about 15 to 20 minutes at a time, but it is incredible to watch the fun they have. Last Wednesday, I heard a commotion while I was watching television and turned around to see the two of them rolling around together in circles on the floor. They were rolling over top of each other and it looked a bit too rough for my liking, but neither seemed to mind . It was a strange thing to witness, but Peaches looked happy and Jerusha was finally excited to get some attention from her “Big Brother”, rather than a “Stop it Jersusha.”

Just when things were settling down a little bit for Peaches, my mom came to visit and brought her own little tornado of a dog “Bella”. Peaches has learned to tolerate Bella, but the combination of her and Jerusha were a bit much for him.

I tried to give him as much attention as possible, but he just wanted to hop on top of the cupboards and hide. It was a rough few days from him, but at least he got a little break from Jerusha when she was antagonizing Bella, who generally antagonizes Peaches when she visits.

I think maybe I will try to take Peaches on a vacation, but than again, where would I take a cat? And if I did, I’m sure Jerusha would somehow make it in the suitcase to give her brother a big surprise when we arrived at our destination.

 

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