New monkey!

"Monkey Business" has been temporarily expanded to include a third monkey.

Introducing....

Miss "Daisy"!

(Technological difficulties. Use your imagination to insert a cute picture here.)

"Daisy," as we are calling her, has been living as a stray outside my vet school friend TR's condo in Fort Collins for 6-9 months. With the recent drop in temperatures, Daisy finally got smart and started asking people to let her inside.

TR took pity on poor miss Daisy and took her in. The only catch is, TR has two English springer spaniels that think cats are great. Very tasty.

So Daisy lived in TR's bathroom for about a week, coming out to enjoy the house only when the dogs were in the backyard. Things clearly weren't going to work out with both a cat and the dogs living in the same house, so I offered to bring Daisy home for awhile, depending on how she did with Johnny & Simon.

I went over to TR's house after school on Monday to meet Daisy and bring her home. At TR's house, she was just the sweetest thing - snuggling, cuddling, purring, and generally sweet and adorable.

(If you want to know how sweet she is, consider this: In my 16 months of knowing TR, I have never once heard her make a positive comment about any cat. But she told me that she actually wished she could keep Daisy, if only her dogs wouldn't eat poor Daisy.)

We loaded Daisy into one of my carriers (Daisy dislikes riding in the car and chewed her way through TR's cardboard cat carrier on the way to and from the vet) and set her up in the car.

All was fine. For about a block.

Then Daisy threw what I can best describe as a hissy fit. Think of a 2 or 3 year old kid having a total, all-out, screaming, kicking, writhing tantrum. She yowled, cried, reached her arms through the bars and tried to destroy the upholstery, threw herself onto her side and her back, kicked the carrier... you get the idea.

I thought there was some hope for a peaceful drive home when we finally got onto I-25. Daisy shut up and sat still for about 2 miles, but started up again with the tantrum for the last 4 miles of freeway, plus the 10 minutes into Windsor.

Since then, she's been calmer, although not entirely much calmer. It took her a couple days to settle in and get used to her surroundings.

She now has a ravenous appetite, is less wary of Johnny & Simon, knows she is not supposed to be up on the kitchen counters, and has torn her way into the mattress in the guest bedroom so she can have a cozy place to hide and sleep.

Johnny is getting along with her pretty well. He is intrigued and curious about her, and not exactly sure what to think. He tends to keep his distance and takes her cues pretty well (i.e. backs off when she hisses at him).

Simon is feeling more combative. He will hiss at her and tussle with her if they are out together. He's gotten better in just a few days but they are still kept separate.

Daisy is a cute little brown tabby girl, 1-2 years old and about 7 pounds. She is such a little thing compared to Johnny & Simon - makes them look like cartoonishly large, slow, lumbering catosaurs. She moves at the speed of lightning and is excellent at sneaking through doors when you least expect it. She needs to keep busy and hates being cooped up in the bedroom alone. She uses the litterbox just fine but has absolutely no house manners - she sees nothing wrong with being up on the kitchen counters, bathroom counters, kitchen table, bookshelves, dresses, computer desks, TV table, etc. It really makes me realize how "good" our two monkeys are in comparison (of course, she just hasn't learned what's appropriate and what's not).

TR has posted a couple ads on Craigslist looking for a home for Daisy, and we've had some interest. Maybe the best possibility is an acquaintance of a vet school classmate who is looking to adopt a cat. I've talked to a couple sketchy people who may need to look elsewhere. TR got Daisy vaccinated, dewormed, and FeLV/FIV tested, but we don't know if she's spayed. (She was a little, erm, fractious at the VTH so they couldn't shave her to look for a spay scar.) We'll probably end up taking her to the Fort Collins spay-neuter clinic to be spayed (or make sure she already is) and microchipped.

She is a good little girl, but a little wild and in need of attention. It is not the best set up for her to be locked up in a bedroom by herself most of the time, but I guess it's better than being frozen (temps got down to zero last night) or eaten by a pair of springers!