Introducing Neve

A few months ago I decided it would be nice for Nico to have a playmate.  I wanted to get an older cat at the Humane Society because 1) it would be less likely for the kids to kill and 2) everyone wants kittens so lets save a cat!  The boys and I went in the Humane Society knowing that I wanted a girl (to get more estrogen in this house!) and for her to be declawed.  The boys fell in love with Claire/Taylor fast!  Yes, she had 2 names.  Claire/Taylor was 5 years old and only knew Claire as her name.  The boys, however, insisted her name be Taylor.  I thought that was kind of mean since Claire was all she knew so David and I called her Claire while the boys stuck with Taylor.  I finally convinced Hyrum to call her Claire (or Cware as he says).  

Poor Cware didn't last long though.

She was the most patient cat.  The picture below was pretty typical of Hyrum with Claire.  She was a very scared cat and so was always running away.  However, she never bit and would just lay helpless if ever caught.  So the moment that Claire was caught, Hyrum would lay on her so she wouldn't get away!  Poor cat!  She shed like crazy so I would often see Claire hair all over Hyrum; always on his shirt.  I would then ask Hyrum, "Have you been trapping Claire again?"  He would then give me a sheepish grin.

As much as the boys loved Claire, I did not.  She drove me crazy with all her shedding and I don't know what it was with her paws but they would track Kitty Litter all through the house.  So I switched to a pellet system.  She didn't like it and started peeing all over things and then THAT WAS IT FOR ME!  I do not put up with cat pee!  To top it all off, Nico was HORRIBLE to Claire.  He was constantly attacking her and she would just lay over and take it!  Honestly, I'm surprised she didn't die of a heart attack between Nico attacking her and Hyrum laying on her all the time, before we took her back to the Humane Society.

I thought I was for sure done with getting another cat but then last month Hyrum and I were coming out of Wal-Mart and the Humane Society was set up outside with kittens ready to adopt.  I am such a sucker!  

Is she not the cutest thing?!

Ronald saw her the day we took her home and he said, "Of course you would pick the one with the broken tail!"  I can't help it...and yes, she has a broken tail.  In fact, it is broken in a couple of places and was chopped off so it is quite funny looking.  I think I will have the vet just completely chop it off when we get her declawed.

But the best part, Nico and Neve are best friends!  Nico is such a devil cat sometimes but he is so good to her.  It really is amazing because she will attack him and most of the time he just takes it, which is soooooo not his personality.  But when he gets to playing, he lets her have it.  She keeps coming back for more, though, so I'm not worried.

When we had to take Claire back, Hyrum was so sad.  He even cried about it so when we got this kitten he immediately wanted to call her Claire.  The older boys wanted something like snowball and every once in a while I would hear a Taylor get mixed in there.  Finally we settled on Neve, which is "snow" in Portuguese.