What is the stage between kitten and cat?

My cat Gracie is a little more than a year old now. She is a relatively small cat, but is so much bigger than the little gray ball of fluff that my co-worker plucked from a rainy parking lot that sometimes I'm amazed.



Gracie's predecessors in this household were Bonnie and Molly, may they rest in catnip heaven. Bonnie and Molly were 2 years apart and aged fairly gracefully to the ripe old age of 16 and 13 respectively. Until I brought Gracie home last May, I didn't realize how fuddy-duddy the old cats had become before their passing. Having an energetic kitten around the house helped me re-learn lots of lessons.

Such as - you can't keep the caps on door stoppers when there is a kitten in the house. Bonnie and Molly moved into this house when it was brand new in 1997. While they were not happy with such a big change in their lives - cats are notoriously averse to change - they settled in fairly well. Gracie took up residence last spring, and now there is not one intact door stopper (I don't know what they're really called - those springy things that screw into the baseboard and keep the door from hitting the wall). Her mission in life was to remove the little white rubber cap from each and every stopper in the house. I rarely found the caps after removal - I'm betting that when we move the piano someday we'll discover many missing items tucked away there.

Gracie is an indoor cat. There are too many weird beasties roaming in Texas suburbia for me to let her roam - and I include humans in this category. Little boys with bb-guns can do a lot of damage. As a result of her sheltered existence, she has not consumed much exotic fare. Birds, mice, and other cat-prey are beyond her reach. She has sampled a quite extensive menu of human food, however; my husband insists on giving her samples of various delicacies. As a result, I know that she will eat green peas but prefers meat of any kind.

Hunting forays are limited to the pesky spiders that manage to enter from outdoors. Over the weekend, a different kind of bug must have blundered into the house and Gracie fulfilled her catly duty by pouncing on it and munching it before I could grab it.

Unfortunately, the new kind of bug did not agree with her, and she vomited for the first time in her little life. Shocked is the only word to describe her reaction! She was totally surprised and taken aback that something came out of the orifice which has previously been an intake-only opening. It was so funny and had to sit down on the floor and laugh.

Until I had to get the paper towels and clean it up. That's another joy of pet companionship I had conveniently forgotten.