Kittens

In Mid May Jim was sitting at the dining room table playing on the laptop and talking with the girls and said "We should get a kitten."  Immediately the girls grasped onto the idea and put it into planning. Jim and I had talked about getting another cat before our beloved Cobh died and before Rachael moved out with Leia but it was only a concept. In quarantine, just like that it turned into an actionable plan.

I contacted Small Miracles Rescue and she said can you come now? So May 24th we piled in the van and we went to visit. They had a lot of new cats and kittens. We were planning on getting one young female. We met lots of cats, most were nursing mothers and wouldn't be available for 2-3 weeks. there were lots of kittens but they only adopt them in pairs because of easier adjustments. We were hoping to adopt just one and sooner than 3 weeks so that guided our options and we considered a young female about 2 years old. Johanna pulled on Jim's arm and sadly questioned "I thought we were getting a little kitten?"   We reassessed and agreed a little kitten would be good and that meant 2 kittens.

There were 2 beautiful long haired kittens who had already weaned and should be available right after being spayed. They were a seal point named "Caliope" and a gray and white tabby named "Cindy". All of us were happy to adopt these two beautiful kitties, so we signed the forms and paid a deposit. We went home giddy and were looking forward to bringing them home at the end of the week. 

Bridget asked if she could build them a climber, so she started a project in the garage. Jim and I took turns helping at different stages to assist with tools and problem solving. It turned out great and all it needed was kittens.

This is when we entered a frustrating cycle of checking in and getting concerning news that our kittens couldn't go home because they weren't gaining weight. They had to be over 2lbs in order to be spayed, but Caliope was not maintaining her weight. We would call or text and arrange a visit and after our visits she always gained weight but then she would drop back under 2lbs. They were pretty stinky when we visited because they had diarrhea and it would get stuck in their fur, so each visit I brought wipes and we cleaned them up. We visited about twice a week and just a few of us went each time. 

As we waited we talked over name ideas and went back and forth, adding and removing names from our white board in the living room.

Finally we got the good news, Caliope had gained and maintained weight enough to be spayed. We would be able to bring them home on Friday 6/19. We had been considering attending a march that day for racial justice and I had off work for observance of Juneteenth. Our plans changed and instead we picked up our new kittens 4 weeks after we first met them. They are 14 weeks old!

Welcome home Tara and Saoirse!