A Tale of Two Kitties

Colby vs. Skinny Colby

As many of you know, I adopted a little orange shelter kitten, Colby, almost 8 years ago. Colby lives a life that most cats would greatly envy. So much so that his new nickname around here is Slumcat Millionaire. We think he really did hit the cat adoption jackpot!

Colby gets a can of Fancy Feast each night and all the Purina Advanced Hairball formula dry food his little heart could desire. Never one to drink out of his water bowl (as if!), we (I) set out glasses of water (always refreshed twice a day) in various convenient spots for him. He has many cozy sleep spots throughout the house, unfortunately not excluding Avery's crib (still an issue) and our bed. On cold nights, he cozies up and dreams by the warm fireplace. He has toys and scratch blocks both upstairs and down. He has his own bathroom in the house, and since he hates a dirty box, his litter box is scooped all the time. And about once a year, he has a great mouse chase adventure through our house!

So what more could the little guy want? Well, he misses the great outdoors. We used to take him out in the backyard (supervised or on a leash), but after a vicious incident with a neighbor cat while I was pregnant, we put a halt to the backyard adventures. Now he just sits in the window or at the back door and cries to go out on occasion. Here is a picture of one of his last trips to the great outdoors.

When we moved to Kansas City 2.5 years ago, we were rather quickly introduced to another orange kitty. This guy is street smart and just looks tough. Given the slight resemblance, Roger and I named him Skinny Colby, and the name has stuck. All the neighbors know Skinny Colby. We think that he lives a block north of us, but he pretty much rules the entire neighborhood. He has been known to chase down squirrels, and I was a witness to one of his pigeon breakfasts about a year ago. No mouse stands a chance to live when Skinny Colby is around. Skinny Colby is a true adventurer, but sometimes I worry that he has no comforts. I don't know if anyone rubs his belly and loves on him. I wonder if he gets a regular meal, and I doubt that he has a cozy cat bed. Most of all, I just hope that his family lets him in the house when it is negative 2 degrees outside.

The following picture was taken on Tuesday morning. It was about 15 degrees outside, and Skinny Colby came to our back door. Our Colby (usually trying to play the role of a tough guy) bowed down in submission when he was faced with a real tough guy. Skinny Colby wanted inside, fat Colby wanted out. While I do think our Colby would love to live a day in the life of Skinny Colby's paws, I am sure that he would prefer to wait for the summer to try it out. I bet that if he really knew the alternative, fat Colby would agree that he is in fact a Slumcat Millionaire!