Calvin's New Friend

It's been a while now since Diana joined us and she now seems comfortably settled into her routine and place in the household. This routine, however, doesn't always suit Sir Calvin. Diana is a princess: high maintenence like you wouldn't believe. Everything is her way or the highway, bucko. Diana is nocturnal in the strictest sense. She wanders around the house at night, cat napping. During the day, she's taken "beauty rest" to a new level. I think "beauty coma" would be a better description. No amount of trills and purrs and pokes from Calvin can rouse her for a game of tag. Heck, forget Calvin, she hardly shakes the cobwebs off to get up for her favorite treats! Calvin, on the other hand, is less of a cat and more of a human. At least he thinks so. He thinks normal "people" are awake and active during the day and sleep soundly during the night. So this means that early morning and late night, when both cats are awake, there are rousing games of tag and kickball as well as foot races that could be mistaken for elephant stampedes by anyone who can't see the participants. We're encouraged that D and C get along so well when they're both awake, but during the day, Calvin seems to be a little lost. Diana is happy to come wake us up at 3am to have us entertain her. (I swear she thinks we're her personal valets and jesters!) Calvin, however, gets bored when Brett's at work and Megan is working on the computer and has been forced to make a new friend to keep him entertained.

Calvin has adopted a leopard print mouse that is a handmedown from Emma, Gina's princess...I mean cat. Emma is particular about her toys and the mouse didn't interest her at all, so it made its way to our house when Gina moved to TX in the summer. At first the mouse was in a drawer with other cat toys. If we left them all on the floor we'd never be able to sweep, so we rotate through the toys in the drawer and when they haven't played with one in a while, it goes back in the drawer and a "new" forgotten old one comes back out. At some point the leopard print mouse made an appearance in the house and hasn't be able to get back in the drawer for a moment's rest since. Calvin now carries the mouse around the house with him like a little kitten. He brings you the mouse when he wants to give you a gift, but quickly takes it back again. :) He cleans it and naps with it and takes it to the food bowl with him and of course he talks to it to keep it occupied during the day. Yes, I'm sure he's doing this for the benefit of the mouse. He keeps it away from Diana at all costs. I suppose he's afraid she'll give it cooties like girls often do.

Eventually the mouse needed a name. It's clear that he's adopted the mouse as his own pet to take care of. Calvin had already given it a name. A distinctive, if somewhat mornful, "meeewww" and sometimes he calls it by a nickname, a short chirping "mew". We translated it for him: "Hobbes". (Be sure to check out the link here.)