You may recall a few months back, how deeply saddened we were when one of our cat brothers disappeared. But our loss didn’t compare to Ollie’s, his brother. I’d never seen a cat grieve before–and this was certainly grieving. We finally decided we needed to get Ollie a kitten. Surely, that would perk him up? Right?

It took a while to find one. In these pandemic times, the shelters are empty. We figured it had to be a kitten–it’s hard to combine two adult cats successfully. We found Milt. (Well, I’m a little more formal–I often call him Milton.) His original name was Hamilton, but that was just too long a name on such a tiny fellow.

He is a handful. Initially, Ollie would have NOTHING to do with him. NOTHING. He wouldn’t even stay on the same floor where the kitten was. Too bad for Ollie, Milt was immediately smitten with him. Milt wants to play, and not with some silly kitty toys, Milt wants to rumble. His idea of a suave intro is to run at Ollie, fult tilt, and launch himself at Ollie’s neck. Those little teeth are sharp!

After a week or so, they could occupy the same floor, and another week, they could be in the same room. Now, for the most part, they can hang together–though when Milt gets the kitten zoomies, Ollie heads for the cat door. We’ve even seen them play–though Milt still has a long way to go in the manners department. This week we breathed a sigh of relief that this cobbling of kitty partners will work. We’ve seen them sleep together, and that says a lot. After all, this was supposed to be Ollie’s cat.

Ollie is too deferential to the little guy. He lets Milt push too hard, until Ollie’s only remedy is to flee. Once or twice, though, I’ve seen Ollie up and whack Milt upside the head–when he gets too pushy, and then I knew it would work out. I doubt they’ll ever be as close as Ollie and Stanley were, but there will be companionship in the mix. Oddly, Milt is a pest–and so was Stanley. It appears that Ollie’s lot in life is to be the long-suffering older brother. But, he gets into it, so the balance is slowly returning to our home.

For anyone who knows Housman, Malt does more than Milton can to justify God’s ways to man.