#Caturday Small Rabbit Or Large Rat?

Katya Graymalkin here.

We’ve been invaded. While Mom was out, somebody brought this creature to our house. Charlie let them in. Maybe he thought it was me, because we do have the same fur: mostly silver, with a little white underneath.

I was shocked at Charlie allowing it. But when Mom got home, she explained that my youngest sister, #4 Daughter, had this thing as a pet and needed us to look after it for a week while she’s away. Mom says it’s called a chinchilla, and I laughed. I mean, that isn’t a real word, is it? Mom makes up words all the time, but that’s the silliest one yet! ha ha!

But we don’t look alike, this thing and I, really. Look at the picture of me to the left, and then look at the creature below.

Evil looking, isn’t it? Her name is Dasha. She’s from the Andes — or that’s her ethnic origin, anyway — so she needs the temperature to be 70F or lower. So Charlie put her on a table in his office and installed a window air conditioner to keep that one room colder than the rest of the house.

CHARLIE! He won’t even let me sit in his chair, and he’s turned his office into a refrigerator for this thing! And he and Mom take turns sleeping on the couch up there so they can make sure the air conditioner doesn’t freeze up or go out! Charlie won’t even clean my litter box!

And look at this! This is twenty bucks’ worth of stuff Mom bought for the thing, not to mention the packing box she went out and bought, so Dasha would have some place outside the cage to play. Maybe I would like a nice big box to play in. I can just imagine what Charlie would say if Mom put a big cardboard box in his office for me!

But Mom says Dasha is just visiting, and they need to make her feel welcome. It’s only a week, so I suppose I can tolerate it.

Fortunately, Mom’s friend Marie Britt chose this week to make me three stuffed meeces to play with, although the Hello Kitty one somehow mysteriously disappeared and ended up on Mom’s Hello Kitty shelf.

Still, Mom feels guilty about all the attention Dasha is getting, so she gives me extra pats and cuddles, and I won’t say no to that.

I’ll be glad when it goes home, though. Chinchillas can’t be wet, so they take “baths” by rolling around in volcanic ash; between the ash and the cold, Mom is all stuffed up and I hate to see her snuffy like that. I’d better give her some head butts and claw pricks to make her feel better. Love you, Mom!

A WRITING PROMPT FOR CATS: Your person brings in another animal, not a cat or a fish.

MA