Second, but Not Second Best

There's been some time spent on this blog honoring our first cat, Teedie. Not to be forgotten, our second is Piper.
After a few months she is less timid around us, probably because we're past the first two months where every time we cornered her, it was for a trip to the vet.
She's a little crazy though, and likes to steal things like gloves from our winter basket or earrings I leave on our bathroom counter. One night I woke up to the soft but distinct sound of something being dropped repeatedly on our hardwood floors. I got up to discover she was trying to abscond with my engagement ring.
She spills food out of her bowl everyday. A small cyclone seems to have hit after her every litter box visit (TMI?) She had worms at one point. She eats our houseplants. And no small carpet goes untossled in her path. But I love the orange bits of her fur which are brighter towards her belly, and how it looks like she's wearing ankle socks on her front paws, and knee-highs on her back legs.
She was a stray, left behind by her mother when she moved along with the rest of her brood. Sometimes Jason jokes that maybe Piper's mother knew something we didn't.
Despite her feistiness, she has at least taken well to Teedie. In a reversal, she is the Tramp, to his Lady. (He is a very pampered, indoor cat who hasn't known a day on mean streets.)
Ducking into the bedroom in the evening, we will sometimes catch them in a warm snuggle. See his white paws around her in a little hug? See her suspicious stare, and his lackadaisical, "oh, are you here?" attitude?