In This Corner...

In this corner, the "Orange Fireball," the "Devil's Cat," the reigning heavyweight champ of Casa ParkHopper, MILO!

In the opposite corner, the "tiny furball," "Daddy's little girl," the newcomer with a lot to prove, ELPHIE!

Guess what! It's a girl! Scott and I batted around names all afternoon, and after my feeble attempts at Disney Princess names (Mulan, Megara), his attempts at Morpheus and Hymen, and some random names like Jack (in Captain Barbosa's voice, "we named the kitten Jack"), Violet, Veruca, Sweeney, Sparrow, and some more I can't remember, we finally found a name that all three of us could agree on. Her name is Elphaba, after a certain green witch in Wicked, but you can call her Elphie. She even perked up as soon as I said it.

The name, which took us about 3 hours to settle on, has been the easy part. We got home around 5:00 and Milo hasn't left his post under the desk since, except for one epic fight with Kilo. He has been hissing and growling, and Scott's attempt to talk some sense into him ended with one of them pulling back a bloody stump. (ok, I exaggerate, but there was blood) He hasn't come out to eat or drink, and he still hisses when one of us comes up to the desk. (once we're here for a minute, he stops)

Amazingly enough, Kilo wins the cool cucumber of the day award. He has been all poofed up a few times, but he came up while Elphie was sleeping on my lap and sniffed at her a little bit. I think he likes her because she brings the new and exotic Kitten Chow into the house, and her food is conveniently located (for the moment) in the living room. She's afraid of him, but I think they'll adjust to each other pretty quickly.

I hope.

I'm really upset about Milo. I've been making "hydro-phobie" jokes all evening because his behavior reminds me of the end of Old Yeller (and no, I will not shoot my own cat). I'm hoping that keeping her in the bedroom/bathroom side of the house overnight will allow them all to adjust to the idea of their new situation. Otherwise, I think Milo will get really bored sitting under the desk forever!

Tomorrow, more pictures of the baby. Hopefully with one of the other cats for scale. She's so tiny! And cute! And fuzzy!