As I wrote in another article, I bought a gray kitten yesterday. I named him Socrates and he's going to be my trucking companion. As I'm spending the weekend in a hotel I thought it would allow some quiet time to get to know each other a bit before setting out in the truck on Monday. He got over his fright over being relocated pretty quickly. More quickly than I had expected in fact. In a few short hours he went from being afraid of me to begging me to pick him up so he can nap on my lap. ...

I had bought a collapsable pet carrier for Socrates a while back. I really hadn't done much with it, just left it in it's plastic cover and stashed it in the truck. Today while eating lunch I decided to break it out and see how difficult it was going to be to train Socrates to go into it and tolerate being inside it. He'll need to be in it whenever I put the truck in the shop to be serviced. I took it out of it's cover, opened it up, and set it up so that it remained in place. I then just ...

I've been using a squirt bottle to train Socrates. We've been going round and round about his biting. He just wants to play but I am trying to teach him that biting is a bad thing. When he starts biting I'll tell him "NO!" and sometimes that will work. If he continues after the second "NO!", I say "I'm gonna get the squirt bottle." That works now as he's experienced the squirt bottle enough times to know exactly what that phrase means. I don't even need to squirt him any more, just threate...

Up until tonight Socrates has express no interest at all in going outside. In fact the few times I have carried him outside he has been scared near to death and clung to me for protection. Tonight I rode to the C-store to get a couple of beers. When I got back he was sitting directly in front of the door when I opened it. He stuck his head out and sniffed around a bit and then I shooed him back so I could get inside and close the door. For a few minutes after that he meowed and clawed at t...

As I mentioned in another article Socrates likes to follow me into the bathroom. He likes to jump up on the sink but because it's so high for his little self he has to get a really good running start at it. A few minutes ago I was in there and he came running full speed, launched himself too soon, let out a loud "mreoooooorw", and slammed squarely into the vanity door and rolled back out the bathroom door. I couldn't help it, I was laughing my ass off, it was so hilarious. He wasn't hur...

Ever since we got home Socrates follows me to the bathroom and jumps up on the sink (no mean feat for someone that small) and watches as I pee. I think he must be gay or something. j/k It's cute how he follows me around while trying to not look like he's following me around. At this point he doesn't seem to like to be outside of about 10 feet of me. I'm sure as he gets older that'll change.

Today I purchased a new personal trimmer which is a fancy name for one of those gadgets one uses to trim the hair out of the nose and ears. The less hair I have on my head, the more I have in my ears. Who says God has no sense of humor? I installed a battery and tried out my new gadget. Socrates was quite fascinated with the new toy until I switched it on. The buzzing noise freaked him out and he couldn't put some distance bewteen the buzzing thing and himself quickly enough. He stayed a f...

While we were coming into the house after our long tour a fly managed to follow us in. Socrates is fascinated. While the fly was walking on the celing Socrates was trying to figure out some way to get at it. He tried jumping from the floor and realized there was no way he could get that high. He tried from my footstool and nearly made it casuing the fly to start buzzing around. That's when the real fun started. Socrates chased that fly from one end of the house to the other, using anything...

Socrates has started some new sort of game. He'll play with his favorite toy, an orange stuffed dinosaur, and then after beating the hell out of it he'll lay it next to his food dish with it's head over the rim as if he's feeding it. I have to wonder if he's pretending to feed his playmate. Do cats have the capacity to play make believe? Does he really think his stuffed friend may be hungry? Or has he simply found this to be a handy place to leave his toy? I think it would be very inter...

When I returned to the truck after dinner I caught a thief stealing my crackers. I keep a box of crackers on a shelf where they're both handy and out of the way. There was Socrates up on the shelf happily munching on a pack of saltines he had ripped open. Caught red pawed. I removed him from the shelf, scolded him while trying not to laugh, and cleaned up the cracker crumbs he had scattered both on the shelf and my bed. I guess I'm going to have to lock up the crackers now.

Geez, who knew a cat could be so damned hard to hold on to. I'm putting the drops in Socrates' ears as the vet instructed in order to get rid of the ear mites. Of course he doesn't understand why I'm putting something wet in his ears and doesn't appreciate it much at all. It's a real struggle to hold on to him and get the drops in his ears and then rub it around so that it makes contact where it has to do so. He fights me every step of the way. I don't want to hold his head so tightly that...

Well we made it back home from Socrates' first trip to the vet. Being as I am the only person he is used to interacting with he was frightened by the people there. He especially didn't like the fact that they kept putting their hands on him, and was totally put out when the girl inserted the swab to get a sample for the worm test. I think he was very insulted by that. The physical and injection went pretty well. He voiced a smal objection to the injection, but actually took it better than ...

After being left alone all day Socrates is attention starved I think. He's finally settled down from a fit of insanity, running around, attacking, biting, and generally playing. Now he's switched to "love on me" mode. He wants to be right on me, in my face, purring and wanting to be petted. While this isn't abnormal for him, his persistence is. I'll pet him a bit and then lay him down on the couch beside me and he'll immediately jump right back up on me. I put him down and he jumps right b...

Ok, today Socrates has thought up a new game. No matter where I go or what I'm doing he comes and stands on top of my feet and then looks up at me like "What are you gonna do about it?" At first I thought he was wanting me to pick him up or play with him or something, but that's not it. If I pick him up he wants back down and when I put him down he stands on my feet again. I'm not sure exactly how this is fun for him, but whatever, as long as he's amused I guess.

This past week I have tried very hard to not think about Socrates, but it's been impossible. Come on, he was just a cat. But to me he was more than that. He was my friend. He was my family. There were times when he drove me nuts. There were times when he pissed me off. But there were also times when he was loving. He was family. And he was too damn young. I miss the little guy more than you can know. And I shed tears.