Diesel

When Misty died in April 2011, it left a huge whole in our lives and yet, DH and I were secretly a little happy to be cat free for awhile.  DH got to go without his daily Claritin (or he would have been able to if it hadn't been spring!) and I had less cleaning to do.  I always thought all the fuzz in the kitchen was because we had a main floor laundry.  Turned out it had a lot more to do with the main floor cat!

We talked it over and decided that we would get a cat for Christmas.  This would give us some time without a pet and hopefully we would appreciate one all the more.  This lasted until our vacation in June.  After vacation we went to the shelter "to see what they had" but we knew we wanted a full grown cat and also that we really didn't want to get another cat just yet.

We went and completely fell in love with this little guy.  Yep, a kitten.  Only three months old and friendly as can be.  Of course, I had heard that black cats tend to get adopted less than other colors and so I naturally felt sorry for the little guy.  He had the loudest purr I had ever heard and so we decided to call him "Diesel".  The fact that the boys always liked trains helped to cinch it.

Silly us, we thought he would be tiny.  Maybe we were just so used to Misty but it just never occurred to us that he would grow up to be a bruiser.  Looking back on the pictures it is hard to see how we missed the huge paws, but at the time we just thought we had gotten our little replacement.

Like his predecessor, Diesel was affectionate and patient with both boys.  But that was pretty much where the similarities ended.

Misty was noisy!  She meowed all the time.  Diesel meows rarely and only when someone is near by.

Misty was social.  Diesel is the original fraidy-cat.  Someone comes to the door and Diesel disappears.

Misty was little.  She varied in weight from about 6 to 8 pounds but she was always very petite.  Diesel is almost to 17 pounds and probably not done.

Misty was dumb.  She would jump for things and miss them -- all the time.  We really think she had a little brain damage from the scar on her head.  Diesel is pretty smart -- for a cat anyway.

Misty hated to see another cat outside.  She would yowl and usually piddle on the floor any time another cat was outside.  Diesel loves to check out the neighbor's cat.

And yet somehow we've been lucky.  We've had two cats that do not bite or try to get out of the house.  Yes, there is more fuzz on the floor (and it is a LOT darker these days with a black cat!), but there is also more love to go around. 

And Joe loves Diesel as much as he did Misty -- and the feeling is very mutual.