Introducing Mina

As if the holidays weren't crazy enough on their own, Word Nerd decided to complicate it all just a little bit more. I adopted a kitten.

Meet Mina.

At the vet's yesterday, she was 2lbs., 10 oz. which puts her right around 2.5 mos. old which is what we thought. She was born under a friend's porch, so her exact birthday is unknown.

I've always given my pets literary names, back to the gold fish I named Robin and Hood when I was a kid. As I was thinking about women in literature, it seemed like they all had really boring names (Jane, Lizzie, etc.) and then I thought of Mina Harker from Dracula (and more recently, Dracula in Love). It's a big name for this little girl to grow into, but I think it's going to fit her. She tries to be a proper lady, already she's a fastidious groomer, but then she breaks into wild bouts of playing that are anything but ladylike.

Big brother Gatsby isn't sure what to make of the kitten (a.k.a. squeaky toy) since her meows are more like "meeps" at this point. This morning, he's being very brave and sitting on the back of the love seat just observing Mina asleep on my lap while I type. Yesterday he spent most of the day hiding out behind the closed door to my bedroom and wouldn't get this close to the kitten without hissing or making that growling cat noise. This morning, he's been sniffing her toys (which he also hissed at yesterday) and she's been content to watch him watching her.

Mina's already been helpful with writing by standing on the keyboard or the paper I'm trying to edit. Gatsby didn't even have to teach her that.

Word Nerd will stay a book blog (not a cat blog, I promise!) but I wanted to introduce my the member of my editing team.