A Female Companion

A new friend

                She’s a fantastic addition to my life. In many ways, I have been dreaming about her for many years. This young girl is destined to be part of my life for years to come. Her name is Fluffy McFluffaLot. That was Maxim’s off-hand moniker that seemed to be appropriate.   

                I had often said that one of my goals for Kiev was to find a cat that did not upset Oskar’s allergies. On my first weekend here, a friend suggested that we go to the Natural History Museum. In the museum, I saw a sign with pictures of cats. I was drawn to the sign like a pig to watermelon rinds. The sign was advertising a club for cat enthusiasts. I visited the group on the day before I began work, and described my dilemma—that I needed a cat that I could take in for a week or so while I determined if my son is affected. I was told that no one would accept such an arrangement. The gods must have been smiling on me though, because Lena, a cat breeder who sales purebred Scottish Folds, had just walked in. She overheard my conversation, and said, “I have a cat you can have.”

I repeated my desire several different times, several different ways so I would make sure that my words carried the correct nuance and outright meaning that I needed. I walked away with the phone number of a potential cat owner after only 10 minutes. The next day, I contacted Lena, and we agreed that we could pick up the kitty on Saturday.

I wasn’t sure what kind cat it was, and I hadn’t seen any pictures. British Shorthair is what I had thought, so I said this to the boys. I think they were dreaming every minute of every day from Wednesday to Saturday about the cat. As we were getting to the place on the metro, their excitement was palpable.
"Oh!! Look!! There's a kitty!" one of them would shout as an ad for cat food came into view. They were reviving their inner little boys.

We set up the meeting for Saturday evening. I wanted to go to the river for a swim—much too cold for the boys; but near the beach, there was also a zip line and mini ropes course through the trees. Unwisely, I had left the house without my battery for my phone, so of course, the battery went dead just after I took a video of the boys on the zipline. We asked 5 different restaurants until we found one that had a free iPhone charger that we could use while we ate. The phone is so good at keeping all of my information that I’ve become handicapped if I don’t have it. I didn’t even bother to write down the directions, or the address, or even the phone number. All was well, though, because after we ate, the phone was charged up, I made the call, and the almighty Google told us where to go.

                Pretty soon, we were sitting in the metro train on the way home with Grumpy—she has a similar facial expression to Grumpy Cat of internet fame—in a box that we borrowed from Lena. As I said, I had no idea what kind of cat we were getting, but I had no idea she would be so beautiful. She has extremely long, silky fur that is sticking out of her ears and toes. I had thought this was an exclusive characteristic of Maine Coon cats. She purrs about 70% of the day. She moves to different parts of the bed all night, and I fall asleep many times as I tickle her under her chin or down one of her paws. When the boys sleep over, Oskar is in the room where the cat does not go, and McFluffaLot sleeps with Maxim.

                As far as the allergies are concerned, there is no cat that is truly hypoallergenic. I guess the bothersome stuff is in the cats’ saliva, not the hair. I comb McFluffalot every day, and Claritin is not expensive here. I’ll try to send some photos/videos.