Meet New Kitten Vera

Every cat loves the "Feline Dream Curl" scratching post

Yes, it's true. There's a new kitten in the Bechkman household. Her name is Vera. 

She had a rough start in life so we were afraid she would be too skittish to settle in with our crazy dog Camila and our grumpy cats, but it's been almost a month now and so far, so good!

Not at all sure about that camera...

She still hides a lot of the time, but now at least she hides in the same room with us instead of trying to get as far away from us as possible. When things are quiet she's extremely affectionate, so hopefully she'll settle down before too long.

We hadn't planned on getting another kitty so soon after losing Fredo. I told my vet that we might consider a kitten if he heard of one that was black, had an extremely sad story, and really needed a home. I was confident that there would be no kittens available until the spring... Wrong! The very next day one of the techs called us. She had found a half-dead kitten two weeks before, starving in a parking lot, barely surviving off of the stale Christmas cookies that fell out of a dumpster behind a grocery store. It's likely that she was abandoned there as opposed to being born feral. Like I said, a very rough start!

Posing in front of our film collection, of course.

The tech was surprised that she had made it living like that as long as she had, and named her Amazing Grace. This being Los Angeles and Amazing Grace being a bit of a mouthful, we rechristened her with a movie star name: Vera. Doesn't she look like she could grow up to be the femme fatale in a feline film noir?

So there you have it: a new kitten for the new year. Welcome home, Vera!

Vera's first venture out of hiding, two days after moving in with us.