100 Word Challenge: Sibling

I’m sitting on the floor in the hallway of my house. All the rooms leading to the hallway are closed off and one end of the hallway is blocked by an expandable baby gate we’ve saved from when our children (now in their mid- and late-twenties) were toddlers.

On the other side of the gate, sit three adult female cats all displaying various degrees of agitation. The youngest of the trio, Sayuki, not quite two years old – that would be late teens in human years – is the most vocal –  hissing and growling, thrusting her paws between the openings in the gate with her claws unsheathed.

The object of their displeasure is a tiny male kitten, not yet four weeks old. Found wandering alone on a dark street, the kit was taken in by my son and brought home. The feline ladies were none too happy about this interloper invading their domain.

Chicks…

You can’t reason with an irate human woman, trying to placate a feline one is an exercise in futility. Sayuki can’t comprehend that he is only a foster child until we can find him a Forever Home… somewhere else.

Say is so upset by the kitten’s presence that after I’ve played with him, she will have nothing to do with me – her favorite human – until I’ve changed my shirt, removing his stink from my person.

This isn’t the first time we’ve taken on the role of surrogate parents for kittens. The hyper-annoyed foster-sister was one of a litter of five kittens my family took in when they were less than two weeks old. How soon they forget. You’d think Say would have a little more empathy.

My daughter, the oldest of two kids, deduced the reason for the animosity… middle child syndrome. Say is no longer the baby of the family and feels displaced. She’s concerned that she will be excluded from our love and attention now that there is a new baby in the house.

*raises eyebrow*

I think she’s being a cat.

Say just has to not maul the tiny fur ball for another two weeks. We even have a potential Cat Mom lined up who already has an older male cat. I think that would be a better fit than living in a house with so many catty women.

Sibling relationships are complicated. All family relationships are. Look at Hamlet. Maurice Saatchi

This week’s word is:

Sibling

(You also can use “brother,” or “sister.”)

What to do:

Using “sibling” for inspiration, write 100 Words – 100 exactly – no more, no less. You can either use the word – or any form of the word – as one of your 100, or it can be implied. Include a link in your post back here, and add your story to the Mister Linky list. If you don’t have a blog, you can leave your submission in the comment section, or as a Facebook status post. Remember to keep spreading the love with supportive comments for your fellow Wordsters.