cat (not mine)

My roommate got a new cat last week, to be company for her old cat, and the new cat has been sick. Apparently this is unavoidable when a cat comes from the Humane Society, it's in the air there, and they just have to get over it.

He spent Friday night curled up at the bottom of my bed, sneezing. When he finally left in the morning, the old cat came and curled up in exactly that spot, presumably to mark it as his once again.

The new cat is mostly white with faint orange stripes all over. He is cuddly and quiet, so much so that M. said she hopes he grows a personality when he feels better and gets comfortable. He seems to be feeling worse, though.

Last night, the new cat came into my room and sniffed about in the very same place where he and the old cat had both been laying a day or two before.

I didn't have my contacts in, but something looked odd. 

Very odd. 

I leaned forward and, yup. He was peeing on my bed.

Fortunately, he mostly peed on the two throws that usually keep my feet warm, which I had tossed off to the side in this warm weather. 

Still. 

I could smell his pee as we carried the layers down to the basement to the washing machine, and M. added some special cat-pee-smell remover to the laundry.

It's hard to get too mad, though, at a cat who is so clearly miserable. He spent the night on the rug in the bathroom (not because everyone had banned him from their rooms; only I had done that), and when I went in there this morning, he was sort of shivering every few seconds. I think he has a fever.

It's hard to get too mad at the patheticness of a shivering, feverish cat curled up almost unmoving on the bathroom floor. It's probably going to be a while before I let him back in my room, though.