Milita's Memoriesfureverywhere.blogspot.com

For the first nine months Lita lived with me in Colorado, she spent a lot of time at home alone. I was spending 20 (or more) hours at my internship at the safe house/domestic violence shelter and another 15 hours in class each week. When I was home, I was either sleeping, eating, or working on classwork. Lita liked to curl up by me and snooze while I listened to some of the most boring textbooks ever created. I was quite jealous she got to nap through it!

Anyway, I thought with a ll the time I spent away from home that Lita got lonely by herself. So, when I moved to a new apartment (because, remember, I had to get an exception for Lita to live in graduate housing), I got the brilliant idea that she'd like a feline companion!




I thought it would be great! Lita would have someone to play with all day and keep her company when I was away from home. 

Yeah. 

My friend, M, and I went to PetSmart where Carmine claimed me. You can read his adoption story here. 

I brought him home and set him on the floor in the little cardboard carrier they'd given me for the ride home. Lita walked over, took a sniff, and began hissing and growling. At this time I knew practically nothing about cats, including how to properly introduce them. 

I let Carmine out to explore. Lita avoided him as best she could. 

That night, Carmine jumped into bed to sleep by me. At the time, Lita was also sleeping with me. She was not a happy girl when Carmine got into bed with us. I distinctly remember saying, "There's enough room up here for both of you," but Lita was upset and wandered off. 

I think Lita wished I would take the orange one back to where he came from.

For the first several months, Lita avoided Carmine by getting into the windows. Carmine was a little shrimp and couldn't jump that high yet. It took a good many months before Lita stopped hissing at him whenever he tried to jump into the window with her. 

Much to Carmine's dismay, he and Lita never became best friends. Lita did learn to accept him as a member of the family, and, dare I say, I think she even came to love him. She would actually seek him out to lay by him when she felt particularly crummy. She would allow Carmine to lay near her if he wanted to most of the time, but she never actually sought him out unless she felt pretty bad. It was adorable to see, but it always made my heart sink.