Jasper and The Bat Boy

I haven't posted anything lately for a number of reasons:

1)  I hate the new blog interface, but I haven't had time to figure out how to move everything to Wordpress.

2)  I haven't done anything fun.

3)  I've been raising some stray KITTIES!

Which brings me to this post:

One day, I came home from work to find a completely emaciated cat screaming at me.  Most stray cats here are very skittish and won't approach you.  Some will, but then run if you try to touch them.  Other cats are very friendly but won't come inside.

This cat was different.  He not only followed me inside.  He plopped himself down on a chair and went to sleep.  I decided to sleep on the couch.  At some point, I woke up in the middle of the night with this cat sleeping on my chest.  He was so light due to being only skin and bones, that I didn't even feel him jump on me.  I did, however, feel the fleas jumping on me.

In the morning I let him out.  He sat by the door waiting for me to let him in.  He cried.  He ran off.  I felt horrible.  Two days later, he was back.  He jumped out of the bushes when I came home from work.  I let him in and decided to keep him.  I had to think of a name.  I have a weird tradition of naming all of my pets after gemstones.  I settled on "Jasper."

Jasper, a few days after I decided to keep him.

He even has a heart-shaped spot on his back.

He is a really good, friendly cat.  I found him just before my trip to Germany.  When I returned, my neighbors called me down stairs.  It seems one of them found a tiny, abandoned baby cat.  I guess the mother and three other babies were hanging around, but the mother had rejected it.  I sighed and took the little thing upstairs.

Little baby Peridot, aka The Bat Boy..note the HUGE ears!.

I had to feed him from a bottle for 3 weeks, and he lived in my bathtub for the first 10 days.