“Hi Everybody,” says Jazmine. “Welcome to my world!”

As you know from last Saturday’s post, we brought Jazmine home from the Global Pet Expo with the intention of keeping her in sequester in the guest room for at least a week or two before she would be introduced to the rest of the feline gang. Kizmet, of course, barged into her room within the first hour of her stay and changed our plans significantly. As mentioned, the instant he met her, he employed himself her indentured guardian and literally would not let Dan or I walk into her room without following us in. When we would physically remove him from the room and close the door, he just figured out how to open it on his own and would go back in, lest he not be by her side for a single second.

Naturally all of this made it extremely difficult for Dan and I to keep tabs on her and I would say that her first few days with us were transparently guarded at best. The closed door technique was just not working because when the other cats caught wind of Kizmet going in and out, they wanted to come in as well to meet this intriguing new creature. Well, actually that is not true. Let’s say that the boys wanted to come in. If Kizmet had proclaimed Jazmine his one true love, Rolz was close in second place as a suitor as he was also smitten with her.

Not smitten in the sense of Kizmet who wore his heart on his paw, but smitten in the sense he was completely mesmerized by her and would just sit next to her, starring at her, awestruck. She gave him a few cursory hisses at first, but being that he didn’t react at all to her theatrics, she determined him to be safe and let him continue to stare at her in appreciation of her youth and beauty.

Zee also wandered in but not to pay Jazmine homage. As he ages, he is becoming a very possessive cat with Dan and I and he just wanted to let her know he was not impressed with her and that the two humans fawning over her belonged to him. He hissed and swatted at her, she growled, hissed, and swatted back, resulting in him running out of the room. Score one for the little lady. About a minute later he came back into the room and saw that she was still there. He promptly decided she wasn’t worth the exerted effort and jumped up on the bed, ignoring her, while Dan and I pet him, King that he is.

Jazmine relaxes on the bed with her boyfriends, Kizmet and Rolz, close by…

So yeah… the boys fell under the spell of Jazmine very quickly. The girls, well, think back to the catty days of high school. You know what I mean – those awful mean girls. The popularity contests and the cliques. That would be Zoey, Mia, and Peanut who had nothing nice to say about Jazmine whatsoever as they watched her primarily from afar, with an occasion meander into the room to glare at her. “I don’t think she’s a real blonde,” growled Zoey. “She’s so immature and such a baby,” hissed Mia. “I’m human Daddy’s favorite,” meowed Peanut.

Jazmine didn’t seem too concerned that the girls didn’t like her or that her world consisted of a tiny bedroom. Between Kizmet, Rolz, Zee, Dan, and me, she had more than enough love, attention, and activity. Harley still had no clue at this point that we had a new kitten and so as far as Jazmine was concerned, she ruled her little roost. In the morning she was served breakfast and her litter box was scooped. During the day while I was at work, Dan would frequently check on her, bringing the boys with him to play with her and when I got home at night she was served dinner and her litter was scooped again. After dinner she was doted on with more play time with me, Dan, and her male suitors and before I went to bed each night, I would go into her room to snuggle with her to make sure she would be able to settle in for the night with her door closed.

What? My very own window TV… Wonder what’s on now…

To top it off, she also had a window to watch bird and squirrel TV outside and a real TV to watch Animal Planet inside! She was content with her world, so much so that she had drawn an invisible “safe line” in her mind where she could and could not go. Many times as the days went by, we would increasingly leave the door open for her to get accustomed to the other cats and vice versa. But, even with the freedom, she would not cross the path from the doorway to the hallway. Or if she did, she would quickly scamper back into the safety of her room.

Oh wow!! The bird channel… My favorite!!

That was the case until Thursday the 20th of March, not even a full week after she was with us. I came home from work and opened the door to say hello to her. I purposely left the door open and went into the kitchen to make dinner for my gang of eight. A quick orange blur later, EVERYTHING changed…

Stay tuned folks… Same cat channel… Same cat time…

I see the open door but I’m just going to stay here, safe and sound on top of this table in my room… Or am I? Hmmm….