Picked up New Cat.

She is even fluffier than Suki, if thats possible. I thought she looked
pregnant until I picked her up and realised that she's actually just skin
and bone underneath the fluff. At least I know that will change.

Although white, she's very dirty. I don't know what to do about that. I
suspect the only option is to get her proffessionally groomed.

Her eyes look sad, like she's lost.

She was a very good girl all the way home, just one curious "mow?" as we
went around a particularly sharp corner.

We got home, and Cary was very excited to see New Cat. "Hello New Cat," he
said "Don't be afraid. I'm your friend."

New cat came out of the carrier and was petted by Cary.

She walked all the way down the hall, and into the lounge where Pickle &
Suki were.

Pickle was in the AlphaCat spot, dozing. He lifted an eyebrow, decided this
new cat wasn't worth bothering about, and went back to sleep. Unfortunately
Suki was surprised and had a bit of an hysterical reaction. Up until Suki
losing the plot (and running away), NewCat was most dignified. But now she
was a bit put out.

Pickle was woken up by the commotion and approached NewCat carefully. The
sniffed each other  with utmost caution. She growled. He didn't back down,
but didnt escalate the situation either. Once she stopped growling and
calmed down, he sauntered away. They're cool.

NewCat (with a tentative name of "Shadow") is now hanging out under Cary's
toy table. Fluffy has stuck her nose under the table and although I thought
Fluff might get a sore nose for her trouble, Shadow doesn't seem to care
either way about mere dogs. Its Suki that she keep swearing at (and she does
have a nasty potty mouth!) but so far the only injury is to Joel when he
tried to hold her upside down to see whether she was really a she or whether
she was more the sort of 'she' that Suki is. NewCat didn't like that idea
and used all her claws for traction to get out of his grasp. She didn't
scratch so much as just get more traction that mere skin can provide.

For the last hour or so a subtle and studied game of 'cat chess' has been
played in slow motion in the lounge room. No-one is making a sudden move and
everyone is being extremely and intensely casual. We're trying to love on
all of them as much as we can, but theyre rather busy studiously not caring
about the other cats in the house and pettin's aren't welcome at the moment
(sorta like teenagers hanging around at the mall pretending like their Moms
aren't in the cafe next door)

So far, so good....

Yowie