All About Olivia

A squirmy little Princess

A Brief History

Olivia was originally from an animal shelter in Levy County, Florida. The shelter in Levy worked with the rescue I worked with in Gainesville, Helping Hands Pet Rescue (now Faithful Friends Pet Rescue and Rehoming and the Humane Society of North Central Florida). Helping Hands would often accept animals from nearby rescues and shelters to help alleviate overcrowding. Olivia and her two siblings were three such transfers.

My mom, my cousin, and I laid claim to Olivia and her litter mates before they even went up for adoption.

I wasn’t able to pick Olivia up at the same time as my mom and cousin and their kitties. Baby girl had a bit of an upper respiratory infection that hung around for a while. I picked her up about a week later and brought her home to meet her new big brother.

I had been worried about how the two kitties would get on. I was selfishly worried that Louis would be less snuggly with me if he had a little buddy. Both of these worries were unfounded. Louis and Olivia took to each other right away.

Olivia was called Maggie at Levy and then Havoc at Helping Hands. All three of the kitties had extra toes, so they were named after X-Men because of the mutation. Calling Olivia “Havoc” is a little fortuitous, since Olivia takes “kitten crazies” a whole new level. She’s an adventurous little bundle of toes and whiskers!

Olivia’s Personality

Olivia is a funny little cat. The maxim “curiosity killed the cat” could have been coined for Olivia. She is adventurous, loving, and spirited. I picture Olivia has a proverbial kitten because of her energy and exuberance.

Let’s start with Olivia’s curiosity.

From the start, she wanted to be a part of whatever I was doing. If I was doing my makeup, Olivia was on the counter next to me. If I was cooking, Olivia was between my feet. I use the past tense here, but she still does these things.

Louis always likes to sniff what I am eating. He almost never wants whatever I have. Olivia, on the other hand, has no qualms about licking the food on my plate or knocking a piece of pasta to the floor so she may try it out or herself.

Also unlike Louis, Olivia usually likes whatever she tries.

Olivia’s Favorites

We have a running list of foods Olivia has decided that she likes. There are likes and there are loves. She loves spinach and yogurt. She likes pretty much everything else.

I discovered Olivia’s love of spinach when I bought a head of lettuce from the grocery store. I had the lettuce sitting on the counter while I put groceries away. Louis and Olivia both decided to investigate. Louis began to take bites of the lettuce and Olivia quickly followed suit.

Louis eventually gave up on eating the lettuce and would just fling the little pieces of lettuce around. Super cute. Super fun. Olivia, on the other hand, just kept eating it.

I put the lettuce away and didn’t think anything else of it. At least, until I pulled the spinach out of the crisper to make a salad. Olivia basically climbed my leg to get to the bag.

Since then, any time I get the spinach out of the refrigerator, Olivia gets a piece. Or two. Or three.

Olivia’s Exuberance

As I mentioned before, Olivia is pretty energetic.

That energy plus her curiosity means that she always wants to help with whatever we are doing. Our joke is that Olivia’s nickname is “Olivia, move!” since she is always underfoot.

Olivia rarely sits still. She wants to be snuggly and loving but she’s always on the move. For example, whenever I sit at my desk, Olivia will walk back and forth between me and the computer. She’ll step down off the desk, onto the arm of my desk chair. From there, she crosses over my lap to the other arm. Then she’ll literally climb the back of the chair and wedge herself between my shoulders and the back of the chair.

It should be no surprise, then, that most of the scars I have from cats are from Olivia. They all have funny stories. Most revolve around her falling while trying to climb around me and then grabbing on with one of her many toes.

Sweet Girl

Olivia is a sweet little kitten. I am so lucky to have impulsively laid claim to her when I saw the facebook post about her coming from Levy to Helping Hands.

She is so different from Louis, but they get along so well. Olivia is loving and sweet in a way completely unique from Louis. She is squirmy and fast and has no respect for personal space.

Basically, she’s purrfect.

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