The same week that Claudius was moving into my household, I opened my kitchen door one morning and felt something brush past my feet. I turned around to see a kitten in the middle of my kitchen, just as confident and self-assured as you please. He said "Eeew!" (translation: "Feed me!"); I said "GO HOME!" and dumped him back outside the door. I went to work, came home, had occasion to open the kitchen door again, and zoom! Kitten in the kitchen. Removed kitten, closed door.

This went on for some three days, and he never missed an opportunity to try to charge through that door. He was camping in the garage and showed no signs of going away, and he was only about nine weeks old. The inevitable upshot was that he moved in.

Anzu is an energetic, assertive cat. He's very active, charges around the house at high speed, pounces on assorted real and imaginary objects, insists on snuggling on my chest while I'm reading in bed (effectively blocking my view of the book, but he has a wonderful purr), investigates anything I've got that looks or smells remotely edible, and generally makes his presence felt. He's not a big cat -- his feet are small and elegant -- but he has become quite solid now that he's filled out. His voice is normally rather squeaky and only occasionally shows traces of the typically raucous Siamese tone. He plays with several other cats, especially Musetta, Scaramouche, and Megaera, and was promptly adopted by Clovis, who loves kittens.

Anzu exhibits the typical Siamese penchant for thievery, stealing anything which captures his fancy -- and his fancies are occasionally rather strange. One evening I investigated a strange noise in the living room, only to find Anzu proudly dragging a kitchen spatula across the floor. He'd fished it out of the drainer, and only he knew what he planned to do with it. Later, he developed a fondness for the toilet brush, which I kept finding in odd corners of the house.

Anzu and Megaera hit it off right away, and the two of them have teamed up to raid any food I turn my back on. It used to be that I only had to guard things like chicken, tuna, or cheese, but now that these two -- the Awful Omnivores, as I call them -- are on patrol, nothing is safe. They love salad, steamed vegetables (especially broccoli), pasta and beans, canned tomatoes, bread... I quickly learned not to leave anything unattended.