el gatito

i recently finished a two week long ordeal house sitting and cat watching for a friend who shall remain nameless (debbie).

at first i thought she asked me because she thought of me as responsible and caring.

i also thought that the name "ivan the terrible" was her idea of a little joke.

it didn't take me long to figure out, though, that this little scheme was revenge for me constantly kicking her ass at gin rummy.

el gatito (not his real name) is a small kitten, a yellow tabby i guess (i don't know that much about cats) who likes to "play" a lot. "play" means "fight".

he is, after all, a kitten who needs to learn basic survival skills.

i'm proud to know that, after two weeks with me, if he ever meets a mouse who throws him eight feet into the air and kicks him across the room he'll be ready for it.

did i mention he also likes to suck his thumb? i've never met a kitten that did that.

(no animals were harmed during the researching of this blog post; well, almost none)