Goodbye and Hello

Ditto aka Buster Keaton

Once upon a time a lynx point Siamese kitty showed up at Toad Haven, kept moving closer to the house, and then moved in and adopted Joe, me and ChoCho as his family. Since he looked like a smaller version of ChoCho, we named him Ditto. Where ChoCho is big, energetic and adventurous, and hunted in the vacant land back of the house, Ditto was small, low key and snuggly and didn't wander very far from the house. When we took him to visit the vet, we discovered that he was at least 9 years old and had badly abcessed teeth, which had to be removed. Even toothless he refused the soft catfood and insisted on eating the dry Iams cat food and drinking lots of water. Over the years the cats became friends and brothers; with Ditto living up to his name when he invariably shadowed ChoCho around the house.

ChoCho and Ditto sparring

A week ago on Tuesday, when we came home from dinner with DIL Jennie, Ditto was not there with ChoCho to greet us at the back door. He didn't show up all evening nor during the night. Joe looked everywhere he could think of and found no trace of him. Noone turned him in to the Humane Society. Of course, both cats had collars with name and phone number tags. I kept checking the back sliding glass door to see if he had appeared; I missed him terribly. ChoCho kept looking for him and sticking closer to us than usual, needing extra attention and petting.

This afternoon after an appointment with my eye doctor, on a whim, I stopped by the Humane Society to look at the cats. I looked at them, murmured sweet nothings to them, and seeing nothing to interest me, I went to ask the guy at the desk if they ever got any Siamese cats. He said they had a 5 month old one and led me to the proper cage. There was a gorgeous little lynx point Siamese cross kitty curled up in the litter box. They handed her to me, and I was hooked. So I brought her home for a weekend test, to see if she was the one for us.

Little Kiddo staying close to under the bed


As soon as she was let out of her carry home kitty box, she hid under the couch. Joe got down on his tummy and managed to convince her to come out. She checked out the house, I showed her the location of the litter box, and she headed under my bed. Ditto had been shy and spent a lot of time under that bed, also, especially when we had visitors. I fixed her food and water dishes and her new box bed in the corner of the bedroom and went in the living room to read and watch TV. Eventually she came out from under the bed and started exploring. I put a smidge of the kitty tuna on her nose and she dived into the dish to eat it. In addition to their Iams dry food the cats also share a small container of kitty tuna each evening.

Little Kiddo discovers she likes tuna

Later she came into the living room and did more exploring and finally checked out my recliner and climbed up and made herself at home on my lap. I think we have bonded. She and ChoCho are curious about each other but still in the hissing at each other stage. For a while I had them both on my lap, back to back. I'm sure they will become friends in the near future.


Joe was right when he said that I had already made up my mind to keep her before I brought her home on a trial visit. Monday I will take her back to the Humane Society for the formal adoption, they will send her to be spayed at the vet clinic we use, and she will be able to come home to live with us.


I know what happened to Ditto. He showed up unexpectedly and he left unexpectedly. He was a guardian angel sent from heaven to help ChoCho look after me and when the time was right he went back to heaven, over the Rainbow Bridge. Now ChoCho has the help of little Kiddo (a cross between kitty and Ditto).