Update on the crazy kitty

Sara has now been a part of our family for two weeks and four days.

In that time, we have learned that:

1. I am terribly allergic to her. :-(  She makes my eyes all itchy and watery and my nose stuffy and my throat tight. It's really, really frustrating, because it makes me not want her around me. But it is really hard to keep her away because...

2. She is the sweetest, most affectionate, most playful, most social kitty I have ever known. She loves being petted, rubbed, stroked and played with. She wants to be in whatever room we're all in. She follows us around like a puppy. She wants to sleep in my room, on the end of my bed, and cries if I shut her out.  She acts like she is on a perpetual catnip high: She jumps, rolls, pounces, darts, bats at our feet from under the bed, hides around corners and attacks our legs when we walk by. She is hilariously cute and funny, but also a little bit irritating (just being honest) because she is ALWAYS under foot. We don't get a break from her! I'm like, seriously, can you occasionally hide under the sofa like all the other cats in the world? Sheesh.

She is especially cute when she hides in shopping bags or barricades herself in packing boxes. This box has the kids' Halloween costumes, which makes Dean very agitated: "Mommy! Mommy! Sara is on my Halloween!!"

3. Cary loves her, and always wants to play with her. She completely CRACKS him up! Especially when she is darting around, jumping, rolling, pouncing, chasing her tail or batting, swiping and nipping at him. (He doesn't always love being nipped and scratched, but he's fairly good-natured about it.) Sara is like a celebrity to him. When he comes home, he first looks for her. And when she comes in a room, he lights up and coos, "Hiiiiiii, Sarrrrrra! Hiiiiiiii!" He totally harasses that poor kitty, who likes the attention 99-percent of the time, except when she's trying to catnap on our living room arm chair.

4. Dean is sorta interested in her, but still mostly freaked out by all her darting around, jumping, rolling, pouncing, chasing her tail and batting, swiping and nipping at him. He mostly enjoys correcting and disciplining Sara. "No Sara! No. Don't get me! Stop it!" He also wants to know where she is at all times, but I think it is just so that he can know not to be wherever she might be lying in wait to pounce.

5. Clair adores Sara, but we're afraid Sara might think Clair is another kitty friend, especially since she crawls around on all fours, just like she does. She is constantly pouncing on poor unsuspecting Clair, and nipping at her little chubby fists. Clair, to her credit, has not yet cried, but she does look very confused and slightly put-out at being "attacked" by her kitty-love-interest. And I am desperately trying to teach Sara -- with a spray bottle at the ready -- that you do NOT, under any circumstances, bite the baby! Even if she is deliciously cute.