Kiddy versus Kitty

From the beginning, there was only indifference. Clementine was too immobile to care much about Kitty, and Kitty quickly figured out Clementine was competition and chose the cold shoulder approach. That, and she was so deeply depressed at getting knocked down a peg in the attention-getting heirarchy that she spent weeks in one spot looking glumly at us until we threatened her with antidepressants (Kitty, that is, not Clementine).

Now that darling C. can hold rattles and sort of even grab a paci and put it in her mouth (still backwards, but it's a start), Kitty is infinitely fascinating. We've been trying to get them together in ways that are positive for both of them--Clementine can be entertained and practice the baby sign for cat, and Kitty can get some of the attention and rubbing she's been missing. At first, they were fast friends...


But Clementine quickly learned to grab at Kitty's fur. She takes big handfuls and tugs away. Kitty is mostly tolerant, but after a few minutes she tries to escape.


The escape makes darling C. grab even tighter, pulling the kitty toward the center of her universe (i.e., her mouth).


Eventually, Clementine gets close enough to suck on some of the long fur. Here it looks like Kitty is also going for Clementine's hair, but after a few sniffs, she gets tired of the whole charade and moves on.


Today, Kitty is sitting on Nate's guitar case and meowing loudly at us now and then. She still seems depressed, and why not really? Not only is Clementine getting more of our attention, but we obviously thought a hell of a lot more about her name.