On Fri, 13 Jan 2017 22:46:18 -0800, Joy wrote:

P.S. - I noted elsewhere in this newsgroup that I've only had Minnie since
Halloween and already I could write a book. I fear I've come close to doing
exactly that here. Sorry about the length of this post. And in case anyone has
made it all the way down here and is wondering - NO, Minnie will not be judged
in comparison to Goldie. She could poop gold nuggets three times a day for the
next fifteen years, thereby making me a billionaire, and measuring up to Goldie
would still be impossible. I will NEVER forget him! But Minnie already has, and
will continue to have, a special place in my heart that's her very own. - JDK


And that is as it should be. Thanks for sharing this story with us.

That is as it MUST be, Joy! Otherwise, it wouldn't be any less unfair to her if
I simply took her out back and drowned her in the creek. Remember, this kitten
was taken in off of someone's porch into an environment that was far less than
favorable because there was a five-year old around who probably never left her
alone for a minute. And after she was rescued from there, she spent a lot of
time alone in an apartment, listening to people who lived in other apartments in
the building coming and going and never really knowing for sure whether she was
hearing her new owner finally coming home, or someone else...and possibly even
someone else coming to drag her back to where that five-year old almost drowned
her in the toilet the last time she was there (shudder).

So thanks to all that, she has behavioral issues. She still lives part of her
life in terror because of how she lived before she got here. I had her for six
weeks before she finally realized I wasn't going to mess with her when she was
eating and quit going into deer-in-the-headlights mode every time I happened to
walk by her when she had her face down in her food dish. It's a slow process
after a kitten reaches a certain age and still hasn't been socialized properly,
but I'm making noticeable progress, and the more I earn her trust, the more I'm
encouraged by the changes in her behavior. No, she'll never be perfect, but I'll
never be perfect either, so I'm not going to expect her to be!

John D. Kasupski
Niagara Falls, NY