I meant to write about the newest member of our clowder at her 6-month gotchaversary. But, for some reason, I had in mind that her gotcha day was at the end of November, when it was actually the third. So, I’m a month late, but I don’t think she’d mind. If you want to keep up with our clowder, check out their Instagram account.
Before we start
Jim originally named our girl Jane, since he felt she seemed no-nonsense, rather like Jane Austen. However, I kept thinking of Jane Bennet — from Pride and Prejudice — and our little girl is most definitely NOT calm and serene. She seemed to agree with me, because she showed no sign of responding to her name after about a month.
After considering her personality, I tried Ginevra — Ginny — from Harry Potter. Our Ginny is small, athletic, smart, and temperamental, so I thought it suited her well. And she must agree, because she was responding to her new name within a day.
So, to make things easier, I’m going to refer to her as Ginny throughout this post, but know that she was Jane until late November.
She appears
Ginny just showed up on our deck one day. Jim and I don’t exactly remember when, but the first photo I have of her is from September 23, so it was likely mid-September.
We fed her, like we do, and she kept coming back. She was small and adorable, but would change to SPICY in an instant. One moment she’d be purring and rubbing against my leg, the next she’d be growling. But, after only a couple of weeks, she grew more loving, and I was able to pick her up. Shortly after that, she started trying to come inside.
She also spent more and more time on our deck. She would sun herself or roll around showing off how cute she was. She also liked our grill and would often hide under it.
“She’s chosen us,” Jim would say, often. But we already had for cats. There was no room in the inn. That didn’t mean that we couldn’t help her be comfortable, so we got her a cat house, and it only took her a week to start using it.
This is my home
Ginny was determined, a trait we would soon learn she had in abundance. She’d decided that we were her family, and she had no intention of taking no for an answer. She was trying so hard to get inside that we started to think she must have a family.
So, I brought her inside — which made her very happy — and segregated her in the downstairs bathroom until we could find out who she belonged to. With a quick visit to our vet that afternoon, we learned that she did not have a chip.
Without a family to go back to, her next planned stop was King Street Cats. Since it was past operating hours, Jim decided to wait until morning to reach out to them. Ginny must have taken an opportunity to talk to Ritz and Dante, because when I checked in on her, she booped my nose with her own. Perhaps I shouldn’t have picked her up, but she used cute, and once again, I failed my saving throw.
As she planned, Ginny got to stay. I gave in to the inevitable. Five cats is too many, but she was too sweet to send away.
Surprise
Ginny stayed exclusively in the bathroom until her vet/spaying appointment on November 10. She didn’t like it, but she did OK. That morning, I dropped her off and waited for the call letting me know she was ready to go home. When it came, it wasn’t what I was expecting.
Ginny had already been spayed. They found the scar when they shaved her belly. Because of that, they checked her for a chip an additional two times, but, like our vet, they didn’t find one. They did, however, administer her vaccines and run the tests for nasty kitty illnesses. Thankfully, she was healthy.
Integration
With a clean bill of health, it was time to integrate her into our clowder. We started with letting her out during the day, when we could keep an eye on her. Like Floofenstein, Ginny wanted to be best friends with everyone immediately, and expected them all to play with her.
Ritz and Dante weren’t entirely sure how to deal with her in the beginning. She was fearless, chasing them both so much that I had to put her on a leash so they could get used to her.
After a couple of weeks, I started disconnecting the leash, but reconnected it to reign her in if she chased the boys too much. She learned quickly and settled down enough that they became comfortable with her.
Floofenstein was very careful with her. I think he was hyper aware he could hurt her given how small she was. But he didn’t seem scared of her the way Ritz and Dante were.
Athena was another story entirely. At first, she was quite happy to be the “big sister.” If you’ve read her posts, you likely know she’s a bit… touchy… about her size — little and small are forbidden words. However, she quickly decided that a little sister was too much trouble, or perhaps too annoying. Athena rebuffed all attempts Ginny made to be friends and/or playmates.
Today
Rather than try to squash seven months into one post, or write seven posts, I’m giving you the highlights.
Her age
When we brought her in, we assumed she was just a very petite cat. I guessed she was between 1.5 and 2 years old. Jim thought she was on the younger end of that scale. Our vet, though, thought she was between 1 and 1.5 years old when we took her in for an annual appointment in January. So, we went with the overlap and called her one and a half.
Then she started growing. We noticed three obvious growth spurts between January and March, leading us to believe she was likely younger than we thought.
Since she’s still pretty small, she should have stopped growing by 1ish. She couldn’t have been any younger than 5 months when she first started visiting us, or she would have still looked like a kitten. So she was likely born in March or April of 2025, rather than June 2024 as we first guessed.
Her preferences
Ginny is definitely mom’s cat. She follows me everywhere, and will wait for me outside of doors if I don’t let her in a room with me. She’s a cute little shadow, and isn’t happy if she doesn’t know where I am.
She likes cuddles first thing in the morning, and is coming to expect some bed cuddles once she knows we’re awake. Once we leave the bedroom, though, she’s hit or miss for cuddles because she’s so energetic.
The only exception is couch cuddles with Jim when he’s in the basement. She’ll visit him for some undivided attention — she won’t share you with a phone — before zooming away for her next thing.
Her energy
I’m sure part of it is that she’s still so young, but she’s FULL of energy. If she’s going somewhere, she’s likely running. It seems like she’s either sleeping, eating, grooming, or zooming.
Perhaps because she’s so energetic, she’s also very playful. We’re working to break her of her very bad habit of racing through doors. She’s gotten into the garage too many times to count. She’s made it into the laundry/storage room several times. And she’s even raced out the front door twice.
Thankfully, her main goal is to get through the door, then she flops and does a victory roll. So it’s easy to grab her and bring her back in. To be safe, though, we’ve started holding her if we need to open the front door.
To help assuage her desire to go everywhere with me, I bring her to get the mail. I hold her like a football, and she happily lets her feet dangle as we go down the drive, grab the mail, and come back to the house. All I have to do is turn the deadbolt and wait a moment, she appears at my feet ready to go out.
The Ginny effect
Above all, Ginny has been amazing for our clowder. She’s brought the boys together into a cohesive group in a way that they weren’t before she joined us. Floof and Dante have gotten much closer.
The boys will follow Ginny around and play with her. She’s chosen Dante as her main playmate, likely because he’s also a tabby. I’m not sure he’s pleased by this, but he does have a “safe” zone to run to where Ginny will leave him alone. Those two will wrestle frequently, and Ginny has Dante using so much energy that we’ve had to put him on high-calorie supplements to help him maintain a healthy weight.
She will sometimes chase Ritz, but he is the least interested in that kind of play. He will let her groom him, though, and they’ll play around each other.
Floofenstein will also play chase with her, but he’s only good for short bursts of energy, and she prefers longer playtimes. They do just hang out together sometimes, too.
Ginny and Floof seem to have decided that they are of equal status and both above Ritz and Dante. Ritz and Dante seem to accept that Ginny is above them, but aren’t truly in agreement with Floof’s status.
And then there’s Athena. When Athena rebuffed Ginny’s attempts to be friends, Ginny decided to follow the boys’ lead and antagonize Athena. That didn’t exactly endear the two to each other. But, as time goes on and Ginny is less antagonistic, she’s making slow inroads with her older sister.
Ginny is the only one who can sit on the heating pad with Athena without the situation erupting. So, perhaps there’s hope for the two of them. Jim and I would both love to see Athena be friends with Ginny.
I’ll say again, five cats is too many, but I have zero regrets about keeping Ginny. She is truly a special little being. As I often do with cat posts, I leave you with some adorable photos.
What do you think of Ginny’s story? Would you have been able to resist the nose boop? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear from you.
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