Thank you all for your wonderful suggestions. I liked many of them but, as I said, I was not the decider. Honestly, I might have named him Snert, but last night at a gathering of family and friends someone suggested James Tiberius Cat… Jim for short. Steve said that was it so Jim it is!

Jim already has an Instagram account because Elanor was here to set it up. You can follow him at james.tiberius.cat. I’m sure there will be times when Belle joins him there.

He spent the night mostly sleeping with me. When I got up in the middle of the night, so did he. He knows where the litter box is and how to use it—oh happy day! One less thing to worry about. He did want to play before going back to sleep but got over that pretty quickly.

Jim is curious. He decided to smell my coffee this morning before I could stop him, but decided on his own not to try it. Probably a good thing on all counts.

Belle doesn’t love him.

She hisses and spits and puts him in his place if he gets too close but so far, no blood. Jim has demonstrated that he has the good sense to run and hide as needed.

Both cats want to be where I am, or where Steve is when he’s home. It’s odd… I’m used to cats choosing their spaces independent of where I am, mostly because I move around the house so much during the day. Now I have a furry parade in tow a lot of the time. That’s OK except that then everyone has to settle back in when I stop.

As I type this, Jim is sacked out on the desk next to me. He really wanted to be on my keyboard but that is a battle he is not going to win.

It’s amazing to think that a little more than 24 hours ago this cat was a flea-ridden stray. I’d love to know how he is processing this sudden change of fortune inside his little cat brain.

After our older cat, Dave, went to heaven Steve said one cat (Belle) was enough. But then I asked him what if an orange cat shows up at the door? I had to ask because we both have a long-standiing soft spot for orange cats. Our first cat, Booboo was orange and maybe our best cat ever.

Last night over dinner with friends the question about cats came up again and he said, OK, an orange cat would be fine but I could not go out and get one on purpose. The orange cat would have to find me.

This morning on our usual walk, Laurie and I heard meowing. Lots of loud meowing coming from (you guessed it) a small orange cat who ran out to us and would not go away. That cat walked about a half mile with us and that was that.

I called Steve (who was out on his own walk) to tell him this amazing news and he was not entirely happy… until he met the cat. I wanted an orange cat but I do think that this is really going to be Steve’s cat.

We took him to the vet where we found out he did not have a chip. The silly cat was covered with fleas and had just about every parasite a baby cat would have. Happily, he didn’t test positive for feline leukemia. So, in short order he got a bath, shots, and medicine to kill the fleas and other stuff.

Belle is not entirely thrilled. She’s keeping an eye on him most of the time. She’s hissed and spit (normal) and chased him once or twice. I’ve told her that she’s still my cat and this new guy is probably for Steve. Not sure if she believes me or not.

New cat is sleeping off the excitement on my desk right now… dead fleas are falling off him like crazy. That makes me happy!

Belle is perched on the other side of the room, considering this disruption in her life. She probably doesn’t remember that she showed up out of the blue herself, starving and in need of a home. Emma and Dave didn’t love her at first either but Dave at least got used to her.

So, new cat needs a name! It’s not totally my call… Steve will have the final say. But feel free to offer suggestions. Soon, before ‘new cat’ sticks :-).