We were going to have Ali wait until Christmas for another kitty, but we barely made it two days. She was still grieving for Blotch last Wednesday night, even after we visited the Humane Society and picked out not one kitty, but two!! Richard firmly repeated, “No, no, no” to the second one, but he eventually sighed during my begging, rolled his eyes in defeat, and said, “Okay, but YOU have to take care of him and YOU have to feed him and clean up after him and…”
I happily agreed! Yea!!!!
Ali had her heart set on a tiny, orange, bob-tailed kitten, but an adolescent black and white kitty named Mittens cried and cried the whole time we were walking between the cages. When they took him out of his cage, he instantly adopted Max (age 3), walking circles and circles around Max’s little rain boots and making Max laugh.
He was an owner surrender from a family that had too many cats. (They had three, we now have four. Hmmm…) Mittens is just the right personality type for Max…a furry friend who’s not afraid of a rambunctious little boy and who can move really fast to avoid racing toy trains and falling blocks. You can see how laid back he is here:
We instinctiverly knew the orange, bob-tailed kitty was supposed to be part of our family, too. He’s small and loving and perfect for Ali, who likes pets that cuddle. She laughed when I told her they have matching hair and can wear matching outfits. Jingles, as he’s now called (bells in bob-tail ring!), likes to lie on his back in your arms like a baby. He’s a real sweetheart.
Last Wednesday, Max was in the living room, playing with an oven mitt and talking to Mittens. He was tossing the oven mitt and having Mittens chase it. And, Mittens was talking back to him…except Mittens’ voice sounded strangly like Max’s voice, just an octave higher. What was so unusual about this? Well, we had to leave Mittens and Jingles at the Humane Society for two days so they could be neutered. Max was playing fetch with and talking to Mittens in our living room before Mittens ever came into our home! Isn’t that sweet? You know what I’m thinking, right? That kind of creativity must mean…he’s going to be a famous author! 😉
Ali is still very, very sad about Blotch but she is feeling a bit better and the kittens do coax smiles out of her.
Here’s the ironic part. I begged God, after we lost Blotch, to not make any of our other pets ill for a long, long time. We need time to recover from what we’ve been through. The Humane Society told us immediately, when we were looking at the Jingles, that he has a heart murmur. They said he might live a short life or a long life. It’s hard to tell. We don’t care. We agreed to take him in and give him a good life, no matter how long or short that life will be.
In the past week, Jingles has survived being neutered, moving to a new home with six new humans, two territorial cats (who hiss at newcomers) and a dog (who likes to chase cats), having his food changed, and getting his claw stuck in the sofa. If Jingles’ heart can survive all of that and still be the happy, relaxed, loving little guy that he is, I think he may very well outlive us all!
Oh, almost forgot. We put up our outdoor Christmas decorations and one of them, conceived one night when I had insomnia, has literally been stopping traffic. One driver even honked at me when I was getting the mail and gave me the thumbs up! Look over the 12-foot-tall snowman’s left shoulder:
Hugs to all!
Ang
P.S. Want to read real query letters that landed these contracts? Woman’s Day – $2,800; Redbook – $3,500; Ladies Home Journal – $3,000; DiscoveryHealth.com – $2,000; Lifetime Magazine – $3,000; Life Extension magazine – $6,480; Natural Remedies $11,300; and many more! See: https://www.writersweekly.com/books/1409.html