Hi there!
Meet Berlioz; our new kitten, he’s about 8 and ½ weeks old and he first started living with us a week and a half ago. “But wait, don’t you already have a dog? Like an old dog?” Yes, we do, Spirit is 12 and ½ years old, and was only about 1 when we first got her. But to be fair to us, we didn’t mean to adopt a kitten at all. “You accidentally adopted a kitten?” Yes… yes, we did, and that’s what I’m going to talk about today.
On the 9th, my brother came in from taking the dog out to report that he saw “the cutest little kitten” in the yard. So, like the fully grown, mature woman that I am, I darted outside to see the cutie, with my mom trailing behind me. Now, there are probably thousands of stray cats in my neighborhood, so kittens aren’t the rarest sight in the world, but typically their mama’s keep them hidden until their mostly grown, such that actually seeing a tiny one during the day is a bit of a treat.
My mom actually asked if I wanted to try to rescue him, which, of course, I did. We chased that kitten, and staked him out, waiting for him to come out where we could reach him for over an hour, but he retreated under the house, and all seemed lost. We gave up and went back inside with little hope of catching him. I headed back outside and decided to see if I could see him, only about 20 minutes later… and I could, he was under the house still, but he was staring at me, from under the house.
My mom hurried to pick up a can of cat food, while I sat out with my brother to play the long game of waiting for the tiny one to calm down. Once we had a can of tuna cat food, I was able to lure him out, and ultimately catch him, with a little help from my mom.
It took him a couple of hours to calm down, but he was climbing into our arms, laps, and hearts within 2 days.
When we found him he was starving, and we’re pretty sure he was abandoned by his mom; so he’s got a pretty bad case of separation anxiety. If he’s alone for more then an hour or two, he starts calling for someone to come sit with him.
We tried to get him a good home for about a week, but no one would take the little one; and I was far too smitten with the tiny kitten to bring him to a shelter, so we kept him.
Now, he’s had a vet check, and other then a raging case of ear mites, he’s quite healthy, if a little small.
We’re pretty sure that he thinks I’m his mama, and it’s pretty darn cute when he purrs in my arms, (he’s got the cutest little squeak of a meow.) He’s cuddly, playful, and a bit of a nut… but he’s about the sweetest ball of fur that you’ve ever seen.
He and Spirit haven’t met yet, we’re waiting until he finishes a 2-week quarantine before we do that, and the process is likely to be quite slow… but we’re hopeful. And all the early signs have been good, they like to sniff each other under the door, (we’ve got truly massive door gaps), and he’s very non-aggressive.
I won’t lie, and pretend that I don’t have a thousand little (and not so little) playful kitten scratches on my hands and arms. And I won’t pretend that I didn’t have a kitten doing the cha cha on the keyboard as I tried to write this… but I wouldn’t trade any of that for the little ball of fluff who’s currently trying to play with his kibble right next to me.
 |
| Everyone needs a hero. |
No comments:
Post a Comment