sometimes you just know

I have a friend from church that had a service dog for many years, but he passed away a while back. This friend has not had a dog since, and I think she really misses having one. She has been struggling with some vertigo issues, so she didn't feel she could drive herself, but she really wanted to go to the animal shelter and look at dogs. A few weeks ago I agreed to give her a ride, so off to the shelter we went.

She didn't adopt a dog that day, because none of them were quite what she was looking for. I'm certain she will keep looking, though.  But they had some kittens in cages near the front door of the shelter, that were available for adoption. One of them was a tiny calico kitten.

Ok, now the back story. We used to have a petite little calico, Cookie Dough, because that is what her fur looked like. James became very attached to her, and was really sad when she passed away. He doesn't talk about it, but everyone in the family knows he misses her and has felt sort of lonely ever since she passed.

Cookie Dough

SO.... when I saw this tiny kitten, I knew immediately that he would love her, and that maybe it was time.  I called him and told him to come to the shelter when he got off work. I met him there, and handed her to him when he walked in, and she cuddled right up to him and started purring. You could see by the look on his face that he was enchanted. I knew at that point she would be ours, but it wasn't that easy.

By the time he had made it to the shelter, they were about to close, and they didn't want to do the adoption paperwork that night, and they would not agree to hold her for us and not let someone else adopt her. They opened at 11 the next day, a Saturday, and I knew they would be busy, since it was a weekend, and someone would want her. So I made sure I was there before they opened, and I was the first person in the door.

As we were doing the adoption paperwork, I was holding her in my arms, and noticed that the incision on her side from her spay surgery was oozing. I mentioned it to the vet tech, who took her from me, and pressed on the spot with her finger, and a fairly large (and gross) amount of pus and other fluids came out. Uh oh.  It was clearly infected.

We finished the adoption paperwork, so she was officially ours, but they kept her until the vet could see her the following Tuesday, and started her on antibiotics. That led to an extra week and a half that the kitten stayed at the shelter, because the infection did not clear up as well as they hoped, so they opened the incision back up, cleaned it out, put a drain in, kept her on antibiotics, etc. But a week and a half later, and fully recovered, she came home with us.

She still doesn't have a name, but we are working on that. She gets along with Mario (our 5 year old cat) and Daisy (my dog) just fine, and is super affectionate. Also super playful and inquisitive. She has walked across my keyboard 3 times while I typed this. And the most important part, is that James adores her, and it appears to be mutual.

Welcome to the family, little one.