Our Feline Guest

So last week, one of our friends, who is also one of Alexandre's former classmates (so great to say that... FORMER classmate) was out of town for residency tests and asked us to take care of her cat for a few days. Since Alexandre was out of town too, she was really asking ME to take care of the cat, but I was cool with it.

The little kitty's name is Mel. It means both "honey" and "hazel" in Portuguese, but I think she was going for "honey". (In Brazil, the name "Mel" for pets is practically the equivalent of "Spot" or "Tabby" in the US in terms of popularity.)

Anyway. The little kitty was a darling. She is similar to Gatinha in coloring, but not fat and so about 1/4 of the size, and also with a wacked-out face, which made her look like Gatinha's deranged step-cousin.

See, here's Gatinha, irritated to have some other cat occupying "her throne" (aka "the apartment"):

And here's Mel, hiding out and paranoid in the closet:

Hahahaha! That face!  It kept me cracking up the whole week. 

Gatinha, however, was not amused. She was actually a very rude hostess and a bully to our guest. If she could talk, I think she would've told me, "Mamãe!!!" (because she's bilingual...) "How dare you bring this other stupid little cat here, forcing me to share my toys and your attention!" They spent most of the week growling at each other. But Mel was a scaredy-cat (har har) and didn't defend herself against Gatinha's hostile advances. She just scampered away to hide herself under the bed and in the closet.

In fact, Mel liked to hide so much that I actually lost her in the apartment a few times, and always found her after a few minutes of searching, tucked into some nook or cranny. But one night, I couldn't find her in any of her favorite hiding places, and I was starting to panic! But then I heard some little meows from the bathroom, and found this:

I envied her a bit. It's as hot as all hell here, and that porcelain must have been a welcome relief. She was so nice as to reward me with a little kiss for finding her:

Precious! I was sad when her mom came to pick her up. But I think she and Gatinha were pleased that they were being separated.

However, even though Mel was fun to have around, Gatinha is still my one and only. Alexandre and I went out to a birthday party tonight, and we came home to the remains of the first giant moth of the season to have entered in the house. Gatinha was so helpful as to hunt it down and eat (most of) it for us while we were gone. How many of you can say that your cat saves you from giant mutant moths? AND that your husfriend sweeps up the big pieces of dead bug for you after the cat is done with it?  I really do have it made.