my new studio muse (mews?)

so i am trying, yet again, to try to find a good match for my studio/ barn kitty. what i need is an employee, or i guess maybe an indentured servant? if i could create a personal ad for the perfect feline match for me it would read something like this:

wanted: someone who will work for room and board and love. someone whose presence alone will deter those rude rodents who leave droppings all over my studio, and who may even occasionally catch one or two. (and then discreetly dispose of the body, so i never have to see it or smell it or deal with it in any way...) someone who is playful and sweet, yet independent and polite. someone who will keep me company while i am in my studio, but not get under my feet and make me fall and play with my wire and cause to become all jumbled and tangled. someone who will not jump onto my back and dig his claws into me while my torch is going. someone who knows where to poop. someone who will stay...

i think i may have found her.

this here is jasper. (hazel wanted to call her "jasmine" but i just couldn't. we compromised. ) she is a tortoise shell, and is evidently less than 2 years old. she is sooooo sweet! at the shelter, where she had been for 8 weeks, they told me she was also a houdini. apparently she was opening her cage each evening and each morning they would find her, free. look at those prehnite eyes.

when i picked her up after her spay, i commented on how stinky she was. i was informed that as soon as she felt comfortable in her new surroundings, she would start grooming and preening herself. i've had her for just about a week now and today she was a little grooming storm. i hope that means she is happy here.

first there was "maybe" (remember him?), an 8 month old orange male kitty from the shelter who disappeared after the first snow. then last spring i got "sue & lou", two tiny little orange fluff balls (who both turned out to be boys) that promptly vanished 2 weeks after we rescued them from certain death down the street. but jasper, she's different. she's a girl for one thing (the women are smarter, that's right) and a bit older. also, i kept her in the studio for 3 days before ever even letting her venture out into the rest of the crazy old barn. now i am going to keep her in the barn for a few weeks before she goes outside. hopefully she will know her place better that way and be more likely to return should she wander. i'd also like to make her a tag so that she could be returned to me, but so far she will not leave her collar on. maybe the third time really is a charm? i hope so.