In the “About Tyler” post, I mentioned that we have a cat. That’s still true, sort of. The family has expanded and we now have a precious, 5-month-old kitten named Jackie-O-Lantern. Yes, Spookenstein and Jackie-O-Lantern. Guess who has two thumbs and is ready for Halloween… THIS GIRL!
Okay, so when we moved to Knoxville, one of my many requirements was to get a kitty cat. I have always been a cat lover, but after my kitty died 2 years ago, I haven’t been quite ready to get another. But now I’m there. Their fuzzy-wuzzy goodness is like blood pressure medicine as soon as I walk in the door. That little pdddrrrrrrrrr in my ear is delightful. And I love little biscuit paws. (Yes, I’m smiling.)
Tyler wasn’t so into the idea, but being the nice guy that he is, he said I could have one cat. Just one. That’s it. No cleaning litter boxes. The house had to be de-furred every week. But I could have one if it meant that much to me. Oh, and it had to be orange.
I’ve never been one to pick an animal based on its color. I like rescue kitties and if they’re sweet and a little playful, they could have pink and purple polka dots for all I care. That would be kinda cute, actually. Anyway, okay. Fine. Orange kitty it is. So I called the wonderful animal rescue in Oak Ridge, SARG, or Shelter Animals Rescue Group and talked to Jan. I’ve fostered a kitty through them before and they always have the sweetest animals and I just really like them. If you need a fuzzy in your life, check them out.
Alas, Jan did not have any orange kitties for me. But since we were on the phone, we might as well talk about all of the other babies she has available, right? I thought so, too. There was one kitty in particular that caught my attention — Molly. She was the kitten of a feral mother. All black with a little white spot on her chest and her belly. Very playful, but loves human attention, too. Sounds like a kitty I could like, for sure. So I talked Tyler into going to see this animal.
We get to the house and the first thing Molly does when I pick her up is, drum roll please…… Hiss as loudly as she possibly can right in Tyler’s face. I had to laugh a little. I mean, come on. Every cat I’ve ever owned has liked everyone else better than it’s liked me. This could be the one cat that only likes me!
Tyler can see it on my face already. I’ve decided we’re taking this cat home and there’s nothing he can do about it. We did leave the kitty that day to “think about it.” About a week later, Molly had been adopted and renamed Ms. Spookenstein. She quickly adopts Tyler as her favorite human and my life is back to normal. Sheesh.
Fast forward about a month. We are in Pet Smart shopping for kitty food. If you’ve ever gone to Pet Smart or any similar store, you know that there is always a section right up front where they keep all the adoptable fuzzy ones.
And there she was. The cutest little fluffy orange kitty I’ve ever seen. Most orange kitties are A)boys and B)short haired. This kitty was a girl and had long, soft fur and a super poofy tail. Her head and paws were so tiny and she just sat there staring at us for several minutes before I hear Tyler say “Do you want to pet her?”
Really? I responded in my extremely obvious “not interested” tone of voice “Sure, if you do.” What is he doing to me? Did I say something wrong and now he’s going to punish me with purring, fluffy goodness and then take it away? Something is definitely up, here. I just can’t put my finger on it quite yet.
We walk over and talk to the little volunteer lady behind the door. She lets us hold the precious baby and tells us if we’re interested we need to call Debbie with Feline Feral Friends. We go home. Apparently, Tyler really wants an orange kitty. My ploy to make him into a cat person has worked! Woo Hoo! So I call Debbie and she tells me that the kitty we are interested in was adopted right after we left Pet Smart. Seriously? That b*%#h didn’t tell us we could adopt it. She said we had to call you! Ugh!
Tyler was so pissed. I haven’t seen him that mad since we were pulled over on the way back from visiting Molly. (See profiling post.) And I felt really badly. I was trying to play it all cool. Trying to not seem to excited about the prospect of a new meow face in our house and in my effort to be a bad-ass, I let the little fuzzy go to another home.
Super big 🙁
By some miracle of all that is good in the world, our escaped fuzzy friend had a twin! That’s right. The rare, long-haired, orange beast had been duplicated and hadn’t been adopted yet.
Fast forward 5 months and we have a full house! The little munchkins at least tolerate each other and, of course, both love Tyler waaaaaayyyyyy more than they enjoy my company. Eh, oh well. What can you do? For the first time in my “adult” life, I have 2 cats. I’m a happy girl. Nuff said.
