Full name:
– Little Mister Sneezles.

Original name:
– Little Mister

Aliases:
– Cat
– Hey you
– Kit-kit
– What do you think you’re doing?
– Sneezies

Sneezles, as he is most commonly known, came into our life about ten or eleven years ago.  Mister, our first fantastically pain in the butt cat had died and we decided that we needed another cat to keep Cutie company.

That and also I wanted to make a play for a calico.   Jason has a subconscious thing for black and white cats.  (I blame the training on his mom’s deceased dalmatian.  That dog was wickedly weird and I think, somehow, Jason started to favor black and white fur.)

Anyway, off to Pet Smart we went.   I don’t have a lot of defining moral characteristics, but adopting abandoned animals is one of them.  It’s not their fault the situation they’re in and they can be just as loving and kind, if not more so.  It’s not right that they are slaughtered and mistreated because they’re not purebred.

—  Yeah, that same line of logic applies to children as well, but that’s another post.

There really wasn’t a cat that stuck out to us as Mister did, but Mister would have been hard to top.   He pwned Jason at first sight.   I mean, it was embarrassing.   The cat didn’t even have to flick his tail before Jason was head-over-heels.

Sneezles shared Mister’s black-white coloration although he’s more of a tortoise.    He has a big splotch of black on his back while his underbelly is white.  But, that’s the one that Jason wanted… and so we got.

I knew instinctively that Sneezles was going to be Jason’s cat.   Then, he’d have two with Cutie.    I wanted my own cat and so we got Little Licquorish.  He was a fully black cat and was the cage brother of Sneezles.  I don’t know what motivated me to absolutely insist on Licquorish.  If I had to guess, it was probably jealous of how easily Jason seemed to develop a deep connection with cats in general.  He was almost a cat whisperer with Mister.   Cutie did her best to take care of him.  I was determined that Licquorish would be my feline connection.

We brought them home.  The first couple of days were awesome.  Cutie, our older cat, thought that they were her babies.  Soon, they ran from her to avoid her cleaning their fur.  Both of the kittens where so so so small.  I could hold one in the palm of my hand.  The house was full of lots of love… and fur… and scattered kitty litter.

After a couple of days, I noticed Licquorish started to have runny eyes.   Little Sneezles started sneezing.   Their noses clogged.  Being still sort of novice cat slaves, we weren’t sure what was going on and contacted the rescue shelter that they came from.

We were told that our precious kittens were previously exposed to kitty influenza.  That was more than likely what they had.   The shelter people apologized because they thought the kittens were healthy.  They explained there wasn’t much they could do but ‘hope and pray’ and recommended that we eyedropper them Pedialyte since they’d stopped eating.

And, that became my top priority.
I was working at the cable company at the time and Jason was at Sears.  I think he tried to come home during lunch to take care of them since he was closer.   I spent all night every night hovering over them and trying to get them to drink or eat something.

Cutie, poor momma Cutie, was locked out of the room.  We didn’t want her to become sick.  Given her strong motherly influence, it must have been some sort of torture for her.   She knew something was going on with her new kittens, but she wasn’t allowed to do anything about.

Well, after several long and heartbreaking nights, we lost Licquorish around two or three a.m.  Little Mister, now officially named Little Mister Sneezles because of how often he sneezed, survive.   He’s now the fully grown, fully fussy, and somewhat overweight cat that we have now.

While Jason sometimes fat shames him because if his droopy belly, I am eternally thankful that Sneezles is here.  When I’m not here, which is most of the time, Sneezles gives Jason something to take care of.   Sneezles is something to come home to and take care of.    99% of the time, Jason is met at the door with meows which are surely explaining what happened around the house while he was gone.

I think Sneezles also helps keep Jason in line.   If the cat thinks he’s up to late, he has no problem telling him so.  He’s pretty much a no-nonsense cat.  If he wants snacks, he doesn’t hide it.   If he wants to be snuggled, he’s going to be snuggled.   If there’s any opposition, he is really good about using his voice.  =)   MEOW.
Jeez… the cat has different tones.  A loud meow is a complaint.   A soft means look at me.  Several loud meows in sequenced means that Jason is in trouble.  Squinty eyes mean he’s in contempt.

Despite not totally owning Jason like Mister did, Little Mister Sneezles has definitely left his impression and rules this house.

And I am so, so, so, so… thankful that he’s here.
I still may not have a feline connection, but Jason does, rather he wants it or not.
That’s very important to me.