The Family: The Tom & The Queen.

On September 1st, we welcomed a new family member—a white and ginger tortoiseshell cat named Pixie. She’s about 6 or 7 years old, already microchipped, and scheduled for her spay surgery.

Pixie had been a possibility for a few months. A friend of ours just couldn’t give her the affection she craved. She’s a much more loving and needy cat, similar to Drac in that way, though Drac prefers to stay close by rather than be touched. He constantly follows you, needing to know where you are, but won’t let you pet him.

For now, Drac and Pixie have met face-to-face but are being kept in separate rooms. As cute as their potential kittens would be, we’re not prepared to care for them, mentally or otherwise. Drac knows Pixie is here and was quite eager to mate when she first arrived. We had a few entertaining nights of cat calling, but funny enough, whenever he gets close to her, he gets shy and runs off as soon as she turns around. So, we’re not taking any chances.

Pixie is completely different from Drac when it comes to affection. She loves cuddles and strokes and understands that humans exist to pamper her. She has a soft, sweet little meow, and while she was mostly quiet when she first moved in—only meowing when she was unhappy—now she’s telling us all her stories to earn some extra cuddles.

It's still early days, and Pixie has her spay surgery scheduled for next month. Aside from that, she’s healthy, and the process of getting her and Drac acquainted has been far less stressful than we anticipated.

Drac, now around 13, has started to get a bit more vocal when we leave, probably because he’s been alone for so long. We thought adding another cat might give him some company, though we knew he wouldn’t be thrilled at first. The last time we tried introducing him to a cat, when he was about 2 years old, he hated her and hid under the couch the entire time she lived with us. But with Pixie, he’s much more accepting.

Please Note:

It's come to my attention that some people might assume that because they see a readable blog, I must have no trouble reading and writing effortlessly. However, that assumption is mistaken. In fact, this very blog required the assistance of ChatGPT to transform basic information into readable content. I didn't just toss some text into the AI and hope for the best; I painstakingly explained each section to the AI, then had it generate the content. After that, I had to rely on a TTS (text-to-speech) reader. Yes, my reading ability is that challenging — I have to use TTS readers to ensure the text not only reads correctly but sounds right. This is why we offer audio versions of our blogs on the site; since we're already using a reader, we converted the text into audio files

For each section of this modest blog — let's say, 4 or 5 sections — it took me about an hour in total using a basic script that would normally take just a few minutes to create. This is one of those instances where you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. Also, while this text took an hour, the TTS conversion will take another 30 minutes or so. I'll have to save the audio snippets the TTS reader provides (You get what you pay for) and then use software to stitch them together into a single audio file for your listening convenience.