new QI

There is a new QI at my house! Adele (named for Fred Astaire's sister) is an elegant tuxedo cat, estimated by the vet to be between 1 and 2 years old. She showed up at my sister's house last fall and simply would not go away, and when it got cold they let her in the house and began feeding her, all the while trying without success to find her a home. (They are both allergic to cats.) I, too, tried to find her a home, but also without success. So now she is living with me! I took her to the vet immediately, of course, and got simply wonderful news -- NO feline leukemia, NO feline HIV, NO fleas, NO earmites, NO parasites, but she has been spayed! Adele is now an inside cat, so immunizations are minimal. She uses the litter box consistently and is very neat about it, follows me around, is very affectionate, and is a wonderful cat! Based on her being spayed and her habits, we believe she was a throwaway or a runaway, but now she has a real home, 75 miles from my sister's house. I have given Adele the small guest room upstairs, with a perch by the window, litter box, food, water, scratching post, and toys, and have blocked it off with a piece of pegboard I cut a cat-size hole in and then painted to match the woodwork. The downstairs bathroom is similarly blocked off and equipped, but she prefers the bedroom. As to why those rooms are blocked off -- the dog! Clara is a 7 year old 45 pound mixed breed born with a deformed front leg, ankle, and foot, but who doesn't know she is crippled and gets around very well but with a "hitch" in her walk. Clara wants to make friends with Adele, but Adele does not want to be friends with Clara. When Adele is on a bed in another room Clara will bark and Adele will spit, but that's the extent of it. (Clara can't get on furniture, which is helpful.) It would be great if they would become friends, but I'll settle for peaceful co- existence. Meanwhile, I seem to have an "upstairs cat" and a "downstairs dog".