On howler monkeys

This weekend I got a kitten. She's 9 weeks old, her name is Leeloo, and she is completely psychotic. Forest and I adopted her on Saturday, and of course when we were picking her out she was positively angelic. Then we got her in the car, and she started shrieking. She hasn't stopped yet. She even shrieks while she's eating, and while she is purring and cuddling. She sounds like a howler monkey. Saturday when we brought her home, we put her in our bathroom as planned. We had read that it would be best to put her in a small room with her litter and her food, and let her get used to that before expanding her horizons. We figured she would chill out after a few hours, and patiently tolerated the screeching for the rest of the day.

After 11 at night, we decided we had to move her before she drove us both insane, so we put her in the upstairs bedroom, and closed the door. She still screamed all night, but we couldn't hear her as well at least. We both feel terrible about it. Sort of. We're getting over it in a hurry.

I don't know what's wrong with her. I called the vet, and he said she might be constipated, so if she doesn't doodle in the next day, I have to take her in to see him. What bliss.

Speaking of bliss, driven to the brink of insanity by the howler-monkey Leeloo, I stuck Forest in the car and we went to my favorite place in the whole world on Sunday. I showed him my dunes, and my lakes, and it was absolutely a beautiful fall day for it. We had the whole place to ourselves, not a soul to be seen. The trees were all at peak color, the sun was beating down, and the breeze was cool and soothing. After our long night with the cat, we stretched out on a blanket and slept for a good three hours in the soft sand. It was heavenly. We stayed and watched a spectacular sunset over Lake Michigan, and held each other close. That's my kind of day. I feel like a new woman. Sometimes you just have to get out of dodge.

I miss my friends. I used to get together and game with them all on a weekly basis, but no one is comfortable with that now because of the way the breakup with Jeff went. It looks to me as though that group is closed to me, and I had better start looking for a life elsewhere, since they all seem perfectly content to just forget I ever existed, and go along merrily without me. Two individual people have made overtures of friendship, but they haven't been very comfortable ones, and I'm not sure where I stand. I also got the feeling that those two individuals are pulled more toward the group than toward any loyalty they may feel with me. I don't blame them, I would probably do the same thing. I don't want to sound bitter about this, because I'm not. The over-educated scientist in me knows it's simple group dynamics.

I am fairly saddened by it, though.

Ah, well. All my instincts and intuitions are pushing me out to find a new place for myself, so maybe that's what I ought to do. It's going to be a long and lonely week.