Poor Borsh

Oh, poor Boris. I brought him home last night and he immediately headed for my bed. When the other cats came around him to see what was going on, he took refuge under one of the bedside tables.

Eventually, I checked in on him and he was on the bed, on a stack of pillows as he usually is.

When I went to bed, I gently moved the covers and gave the pillows to him for the evening, but he decided he wanted to cuddle up with me. This has never happened before.

Dylan is normally on my left side when I sleep but Boris had settled there and no way was I going to move him. Instead, I turned on my back and Dylan curled into my right pit.

Boris sighed and put his head on my shoulder and that's how we went to sleep.

The morning, I terrorized him with medicine, then coaxed him to eat some of the yummy expensive food, but all in all, he wasn't getting off the pillows.

When I got home, he was still on the pillows and his saucer of food was empty and he'd had some water from the bowl I put on the table next to the bed.

I'm keeping watch on his, erm, output and so far am still concerned.

For all his bigness, for all his silliness, Boris really is a delicate creature.

He was found in an overgrown, weeded lot in the ghetto. A woman who lived nearby heard a bunch of kittens mewing. Then a few. Then only one. She went into the overgrown grass, gently, carefully parting the grass with an old pitchfork. On her last pass, when she raised the pitchfork, there was Boris sitting on the end of it.

When I brought him into Casa Melancholia, the first thing he did was take a header off the stairs and knock himself out for about ten seconds. I'm convinced he lost about thirty IQ points from that fall.

I first met him at Hunky Vet's office, where they were trying to find a home for him. One of the tech's put him in my lap and I was a goner.

He immediately reared back and began washing his big, spindly black foot. I put my palm against his back and felt him purr. "This," I said, "is going to be one great cat." And so he was. And so he is.

I'm going now. I know a kitty who needs a little extra loving tonight.