captainsblog | The truth about cats and dogs (Reply)

Meet Zoey, the soon-to-be newest member of our family:

Right before last weekend, Eleanor let me know that a co-worker of hers had been visited with a litter of kittens. She's allergic to them, and her husband isn't especially fond of the species, and they're playful and adorable and do we know anyone?

Well, duh.

Our biggest concern was the potential cost. We haven't raised a kitten from a pup in over 20 years, and vaccines and fixin' weren't cheap then and aren't now. We told her we'd keep our minds and hearts open to it, though, if other adoptions didn't work.

That was a week ago. One of them has found a home, another came back after things didn't work out with another adopter, and there were still two boys and two grrls. We ruled out the guys, partly for territory-marking reasons (this house was a war zone of pee for the two years we had two fixed adult males), and partly because of the UTI's that Tazzer has had for his entire adult life. That left one of two looking very much like Esmeralda, our first and probably sweetest-ever cat, and the one you see above.

She played. She purred. We were hooked. Oh, and the donator's vet is so determined to help with the process? She'll spay her for 35 bucks.

We told Emily after her camp-counseling gig last night. She positively beamed. We just got back from there, taking that pic and several others I'll post on FB (and send you the link to if you can't get there from here). We still have to have her leukemia-tested at our vet, and brought home for the mandatory introductions, but judging by past experience? Tasha will do her level best to ignore her; Ebony will pretend she's a chew toy and carry her around in her mouth without hurting a hair on her; Michelle will hiss and spurn but will eventually be okay with it; and Tazzer will fall in love with her (she already shows a love for playing with rubber bands, his biggest passion).

Those latter two are getting ready for the lovefest themselves, as you can see:

Finally, Taz will have someone to groom him.

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We did get a reminder about the awesome responsibility coming with such love as we headed over there today. One side street was covered with LOST DOG posters from a plainly heartbroken family. Since I drive down there virtually daily, I'm pretty sure they just got put up. It's a 7-year-old whippet, and looks as utterly adorable in her own way as Zoey does. I did that drill for all three of the older cats who've since departed us- although each of them returned home before illness took them each to Rainbow Bridge. I watch and pray for this lost one as I do for all of ours, and all of yours.