Not that there's anything wrong with that....

I was up before dawn this morning to get Sweet Pea to the clinic at seven o'clock this morning. The earlier you get the pet in, the quicker they can start on the "fixing" procedure and vaccinations. During the drive there, Sweet Pea was as quiet as a tiny mouse, huddled in the crate and just watching me as I drove. And just where are you taking me?

They weighed Sweet Pea (just a tiny bit over nine pounds) and said the name fit because Sweet Pea was such a contented and serene cat. I had taken off the red sparkling bell collar so it wouldn't smell like the vet's office, and I promised Sweet Pea that her first piece of jewelry would be waiting for her when I brought her home later today.

Not long after I had gotten back home, the girl at the clinic called. "Did you know that Sweet Pea is a male? And a neutered male at that!" What?!?! Obviously, I didn't have a clue. And more important than the mix-up in the sex was they found out that Sweet Pea has a heart murmur, so they advised against letting him be an outside cat. They also asked me if I wanted to change the name to something different, being that Sweet Pea is a male, not a female. (What would I change it to? Sweet Pete? I told the girl I would keep the name as is.)

I explained to the girl that we had planned to keep Sweet Pea inside because she/he seemed to have no desire to go outside, and actually had no desire to venture farther than the second floor of our house. When Sweet Pea has gone downstairs, it's because I have carried her down the steps.

The girl at the clinic told me that they would still give Sweet Pea the vaccinations, and I could pick him up in half an hour. They also told me that the cat was between three and four years old, judging by his teeth. When I got off the phone, I went upstairs to look at the frilly little bed that I made for Sweet Pea yesterday-- and the cat just loved it. Jumped right in and slept there for hours, resting that cute little nose on the bright silk edging of the plush pea-green velvety blanket.

When I told my husband about the phone call, he sat there just shaking his head, and we both remembered how this cat has acted since it came to us. How can this delicate, quiet, serene, sensitive, lady-like cat be a male? "Maybe he's gay," said my husband. "Are there gay cats?... Not that there's anything wrong with that."

Sweet Pea is back home now.... first thing he did when I carried him upstairs to "his" room was run to his food dish and eat every drop-- he hadn't had anything to eat since nine o'clock last night, given the fact that we thought he would be having an operation this morning. After that, he went into the dressing room (his room) and tip-toed into the plushness of his pea-green blanket-bed and started licking his paws and making himself beautiful. Or handsome, whatever the case may be.

We are still shaking our heads, every time we look at Sweet Pea. Everything he does is decidedly feminine. All his mannerisms remind me of the female cat I had about 25 years ago. Sure, he's bigger than a female cat should be, but Mickey Kitty is much smaller than a male cat should be.

As for Sweet Pea's heart murmur, we don't have to do anything for that except to keep him inside the house. If he were outside and got hurt, and had to have a medical procedure, that heart murmur would most likely do him in as the anesthesia took hold.

I've had to re-think my perception of Sweet Pea. I can't keep telling him how nice it is to have a "sweet little-girl kitty," and I have stopped calling his collar the "first piece of jewelry." Now it's just a bright red collar with a bell on it.

And Sweet Pea is still as sweet and as quiet as can be. Curling up in our arms, burying his face under our chins and rubbing his nose into our necks. He will sit on our laps for as long as we're willing to hold him, and he will just watch the other cats looking at him and not move a muscle. I'm sure he feels safe here by now, and I'm sure he's a perfectly happy cat.

And it doesn't even matter if he's a boy cat or a girl cat. He's just Sweet Pea, and that's all that matters. (And I'm not changing his name to Sweet Pete.)


To make a wondrous day more wonderful--- the Guinea hens are gone....... the neighbor came by with his big fishing net, captured the hens as they flew around the coop, put them into a big crate, and drove them away to another neighbor's property. The yard is completely silent, except for the soft sounds of Audrey every once in a while. She is probably thanking us for getting the noisy low-mannered Guinea hens out of her coop.