My dog is bored!!!

Hi, I'm Erin, and I'm about to adopt a kitten. Er, more specifically, I'm buying a Ragdoll kitten from a breeder. OK OK, before anyone goes and chastises me for buying a cat from a breeder, I donated the same amount I spent on the kitten to the local Humane Society. I also went several times to the shelter, the same shelter where my family adopted 2 cats over the years, and where I adopted one cat. And they were great cats -- loving healthy well adjusted cats. I visited the shelter 3 times and met many many cute lovely sweet cats that I want to take home. But a lot of them had medical problems, and none were guaranteed to get along with the most important fur-person here, Maddy, the GSD.

Here she is . . ..



Maddy is seriously the best dog in the world, everyone who knows her would agree. She has the awesome bent ear, tons of personality, and she's my little shadow. I bring her everywhere, we live in the city. And when we're not walking or visiting someone, she comes with me to work, and hangs out under my desk while I'm on the computer.

My boyfriend used to live here, too, with his cat Rafi . . . Maddy and Rafi were awesome buds . . . .



But, alas, the boyfriend and Rafi moved out in February, and Maddy is now an only child. When Rafi first came into the picture, he was already 4 months old, so he was a bigger kitten. It turned out that Rafi was the most laid back cat to ever have lived, even as a youngster. He would let Maddy do anything to him, (Maddy was 1 at the time -- much more hyper than she is now) which kind of scared me at first, and resulted in me having more than a few nightmares . . .



Maddy never hurt him . . . well, actually, she did bite his ear once when we were gone, resulting in the cat having a pierced ear for awhile, but it healed and he was fine. I miss that cat he was sooo cute!!



So, the last few months I have been researching and visiting kitties and decided to get a Ragdoll kitten. Apparently they are a big breed, and are laid back and are supposed to get along well with dogs, and they are long haired, but don't shed like a regular long hair because they don't have a thick undercoat. I searched the web for local Ragdoll breeders, and found one in Buffalo near my parents' house. I visited the babies when they were 2-3 weeks old, there were 2 litters there. Here are some pics . . .







I put a down payment to be 4th in line to pick from 8 kittens. All my years of owning cats, and I always wondered what they looked like when they were babies, and what their siblings looked like, and now I know!! Another funny thing, I was searching the internet for videos of Ragdoll cats (there are a lot of cat videos on Youtube, BTW, and much of my time has been consumed ogling them), I came across a video of one of the queens, Cotton . . .



I love this video, and what are the odds??

I get the cat July 8th. I CAN'T WAIT!! My only concern is the breeder is letting the kittens go at 6 weeks. When I asked her about this she said she has always done it that way and has never had any problems, and the kittens bond better with the owner when they are more dependent . .. I trust her in that she's been doing it for awhile, but I am still worried about the whole transition for the cat. I might wait a week or 2 just for the fact that Maddy could have him as a snack if I am not totally careful, which I will be, and Maddy would never do that . . . but you can never be too careful I am sure.

So, I am setting up my guest bedroom/office as the cat's room, as I did before. There is a baby gate so Maddy can't ransack the room, and so the kitty can get away from her if need be. I found this sweet litterbox enclosure in case I have guests that would be grossed out by a litterbox in the bedroom (my bathroom is too small, and Maddy would for sure eat the poop!!)



It's from Drs Foster and Smith . . .