This winter is shaping up to be long, cold, and snowy.  I can’t really complain because snow days have kept me from having full weeks, and I am getting very good at staying in bed and watching TV.  But the cold weather also just makes me want to sit inside, eat creamy bad for me soups, drink tea, and cuddle with a furry animal while I read a good book.  Unfortunately, we have no such animal, due to the lethal combination of poverty, busy schedules, and allergies. Yet as winter wears on, my roommates and I decided that we had to do something to fulfill this furry creature need.  Thus, as good kind-hearted citizens, we signed up to be kitten foster parents at the humane society.

This means that whenever they have little kittens not yet old enough to be adopted, we keep them and play with them for a couple weeks before turning them over.  Perpetual kittens. Never cats. What is not perfect about this system?  Of course, lots of people want kittens, which means that we have to prove ourselves by taking on a slightly harder challenge.

Which is how we got Felix.  Felix is a couple months old, therefore still very much a kitten, though past the tumbling ball of fuzz stage.  Felix is currently suffering from an eye infection and upper respiratory infection that makes his eyes scary red slits that water and he sneezes and coughs like a coal miner.  He also has a short stub tail that hinders his balance, which means that his sneezes often send him tumbling to the side.  Oh, and did I mention that he might be part mountain lion, as his claws are longer than any kitten should have? We all bear the scars of Felix’s affection.  His contagious illness kept Felix from normal feline interaction at the human society, leaving him starved for attention.  He follows us as we walk through the house, tries to climb into the toilet when we brush our teeth, sleeps on whoever will sit still, sneezes on whatever we are trying to eat, and is generally a precious dripping sneezing ball of perfection.

Here is a video of Felix. I apologize that you don’t get to hear him sneeze, because it really is his best talent. He looks much larger in this video than he really is, as he is curled up next to me as I type this and takes up barely any room.

Foster Cat Number 1: Felix