Thinking of a new addition

When we returned from our honeymoon, our little prince (he's actually 5 but still a baby to us) Flower was acting so strange....like he never thought we would return.

We've been on several vacations over the years, numerous ones even.  They've never acted strange afterward, obviously happy we returned but never distraught. This time was a little different, I usually have a co-worker stay at the house the entire time we're gone so they have pretty much the same human contact and interaction as when we're home but this time I had two of my bestest pals stop in every other day or so to make sure they were doing ok and change out the litter box.  I don't know if the loss of human contact made a difference or not but Flower has been acting out.  Constantly following us to the door (almost trying to get out into the garage with me, something he's NEVER done), excessive meowing..following us around the house period.  Strange new traits. 

I've been doing some research online - I know it can be dangerous but I can't help myself.  Google is just so entertaining.  Anyway, I began researching seperation anxiety in cats and discovered Flower was showing many signs/symptoms of this.  Of course most websites say to re-train your cat to a routine that doesn't involve them getting anxious when we leave or overly excited when we return.  We've been leaving the tv on Animal Planet when we leave the house (as if he even watches it) but we read that background noise helps them feel 'less alone'.  Some even said getting another cat to keep it company could help.  We already have Tinker Bell (aka Stinker Bell/Tink/Fat Cat/Tinker Bing), she was the first member of our little family.

But obviously she's too lazy to keep Flower company 24/7

So, thinking of a new addition NO no no...not a kid. 

But a kitten.  In fact, I've already picked his name - Dio (named after the late metal rocker Ronnie James Dio - Hardy and I love music so much, especially that of the rock genre so it only felt right to name a newbie after a recently deceased member of the rock world to sort of let his name, live on).

My soon-to-be sister in law's grandma (mouthfull huh?) had a nice stray cat take up residency at her house a couple of months ago and bless her with 5 kittens.  All of them have homes to go to once they're old enough/big enough which is really any day now.  I decided that possibly adding a new play pal to our happy family would ease some of Flower's anxiety when we're gone...a new toy in a weird way.

We'll see...we're not bringing him home until he's got all of his shots and has been fixed.