Life with Scout: The Blind Kitty Chronicles

By Nancy Parish

Life with Scout: The Blind Kitty Chronicles takes readers on an adventure with a newly-adopted blind kitten.

In January 2020, I adopted a blind kitten after practicing my downward dog at a neighborhood kitty Café. As it turned out, blindness was the least of our problems. The little kitten had an upper respiratory infection, an inner ear infection, and a tendency to overgroom. She also had to navigate a household filled with three other cats that didn’t want her there. Life with Scout: The Blind Kitty Chronicles gives the reader a view of the good, bad, and funny sides of pet adoption and ownership of a special needs animal.

*15% of my proceeds will be donated to animal shelters and cat rescues.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nancy Parish
• Release date: Apr 25, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005255893

Nancy Parish

Nancy Parish is a Cincinnati-based freelance writer and the founder of the Cincinnati SCBWI group. Her column, “Footnotes,” appeared on the Guide to Literary Agents Blog for several years. Her writing has also appeared in Children’s Writer’s and Illustrator’s Market, Better Marketing, The Startup, and Catness. When she is not writing, she is teaching her cats how to fetch their toys.

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Life with Scout: The Blind Kitty Chronicles

Copyright 2022 Nancy Parish

Published by Nancy Parish at Smashwords

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Life of Scout: The Blind Kitty Chronicles

By

Nancy Parish

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Cats Are Like Potato Chips, You Can’t Have Just One

Chapter 2: I Didn’t Need To Adopt Another Cat, I Needed To Adopt THAT Cat

Chapter 3: What it’s Like to Adopt a Blind Kitten

Chapter 4: Teaching My Blind Kitten To Fetch: It Was Easier Than You’d Think

Chapter 5: Kitty Tag: The Midnight Adventures of My Three Felines

Chapter 6: Seven Things Your Cat Wants You to Know: They’d Tell You if They Could

Chapter 7: Mistakes I Made When I Adopted a Blind Kitten: What I Did to Fix Them

Chapter 8: The Inexplicable Habits of My Cats: I Will Never Understand Why they Do

What They Do

Chapter 9: How My Blind Kitten Learned To Use The Function Keys and Other Ways She’s Put Her Computer Skills to Use

Chapter 10: When Cats Get Hangry: The Not so Gentle Ways My Cats Ask to be Fed

Chapter 11: Every Day is an Adventure When You’re a Blind Cat

Chapter 12: Furry Logic: The Decisions Cats Make

Chapter 13: Creatures of Habit

Chapter 14: Home Alone: A Cat’s Tale

Chapter 15: Ten Things No One Told Me When I Adopted A Cat, And Why I Love My

Cats Anyway

Chapter 16: My Cat’s An Extrovert: Getting to Know Scout’s Habits

Chapter 17: A Cat’s Guide to Living Your Best Life: We Can Learn A Thing or Two From Our Feline Friends

Chapter 18: Five Things That Piss Off Your Cat: Sometimes Cat Treats Won’t

Work

Chapter 19: Putting My Cat On A Diet: Little Scout Got Stout

Chapter 20: My Cats’ Love language: The Many Ways My Cats Show They Care

Chapter 21: The Cats Would Like A Word About The Holiday Season.

Seriously, It’s time For a Talk…

Chapter 22: Spending The Afternoon With My Cats: Easy like Sunday Afternoon

Authors Note

Acknowledgements

Author Bio

Authors Note

Early in the pandemic, I started writing articles and blog posts on Medium.com. The most popular ones and the ones I had the most fun writing were the articles I wrote about my cats. Adopting Scout and my experience getting her acclimated to my household was a frequent topic.

When one of the publications I often wrote for closed down, I decided to put some of my favorites into an ebook.

So here we are.

Scout amazes me every day with her resilient spirit and her fearlessness. She has been a great addition to the clowder. Harper and Hermione have gone from barely tolerating her to accepting her to enjoying her company.

Watching Scout overcome every obstacle she encounters renewed my resolve to advocate for stray animals, especially ones with special needs.

Scout has been a bright light these difficult years and I’m so thankful she’s in my life.

I hope you enjoy taking this journey with us.

Chapter 1

Cats Are Like Potato Chips, You Can’t Have Just One

Years ago, I adopted two littermates. When I first met them, they were curled up together asleep in a cage at Petco. At first glance, I couldn’t tell where one kitten started and the other ended. I wanted to adopt one cat, but when I saw them sleeping like that, there was no way I could separate them.

For the record, they haven’t slept like that since. It was a total sales job on their part. It worked. I brought them both home. I named the fluffy Maine coon, Hermione Granger. Her sister, a little tabby cat, Harper Lee.

I kept the kittens in my office for most of the first week to give them time to adapt to their surroundings. I intended on having them stay longer, but five days in, they staged a jail break.

As I opened the door to feed them, they ambushed me and ran out of the room. That was how they met Lucky, my other cat, a gray and white tabby. He didn’t hiss or scowl at them. Lucky was totally chill as he watched them take over his space.

Three’s a clowder

Lucky got along famously with the girls. They were siblings in every sense of the word. One time, as Harper walked past, Hermione stuck out her paw and goosed her. Harper turned around and tackled her sister to the floor. Hermione quickly maneuvered herself away from Harper’s grasp.

They circled each other, darting, weaving, and ready to pounce at the right moment. The result was a wrestling match that lasted about ten minutes before either one retreated. Lucky and I watched the action from the comfort of the couch. I think he was happy to be on the sidelines.

As kittens, Harper and Hermione’s games of tag were epic. One chased the other, leaping over chairs, pouncing on the bed, and climbing on tables in hot pursuit. A few minutes later, they turned back the way they came.

Little Cat Feet and Other Antics

Carl Sandburg was wrong when he said fog crept in silently on little cat feet. Little cat feet, in my experience, are anything but quiet. Harper and Hermione’s little feet sounded like a herd of bison charging across a prairie. Six years later, my cats haven’t gotten any quieter.

One thing was certain, the girls adored