Let me start off by saying Aaron and I never planed on getting another cat. We had Katara and she passed away a few months ago. She was the best & coolest cat we’ve ever owned and truthfully, we wanted to end on a good note. We like cats, but we’re dog people.
We also agreed we enjoyed not having pets right now. Although we loved animals, it was nice to not have one to care for.
Then I was driving down the road one day hahaha
It was Wednesday (9.16.20) and I was driving home with the girls for lunch when I saw a black fluffy thing in the turn lane on a four lane road. I passed it and instantly thought “I hope that’s not a kitten. And if it is, I hope it’s not alive….” curiosity got the best of my so I turned around and pulled in the turn lane. Rylie of course was yelling from the backseat “MOM! What are you doing? Why are you turning around? What’s in the road?”
I pulled up right next to it, put my hazard lights on, rolled down my window and poked my head out. On the ground was a shaking, alive black kitten surrounded in poop and pee-puddles from fright. I grabbed a towel from the back, scooped it up and drove home.
Naturally, Rylie was asking a million questions but I waited to answer until we were pulling into our neighborhood.
“It’s a kitten girls.”
“A KITTEN!!!!!!!” they both exclaimed.
“Yes. It was scared and lost.”
“Where’s its mommy?” Rylie asked.
“It lost its mommy. So we’re going to take it home and clean it up.”
“Are we going to keep it?”
“I don’t think so honey. We’ll talk to Daddy.”
“I’m gonna ask Daddy, and I’m gonna say, ‘Daddy! We found a kitten. Can we keep it?’ and he’s gonna say, ‘suuureeee Rylie. You can keep the kitten.'” 😀
Her confidence humored me but I didn’t say anything.
We got it home and I got the girls some lunch. I gave it a bath the best I could in the kitchen sink and tried to see if it was a boy or girl. I’m pretty sure it’s a boy, but we’re still waiting for him to grow up to know for sure haha
After his bath I dried him off, gave him a fresh towel and stuck him in a box. I told the girls he had such an eventful day and needed some quiet time.
After quiet time, we went to WalMart and got a cheap, small bag of kitten food, litter and a bag of toys. I was not going to invest a lot of money into a cat I wasn’t sure would stay with us.
Once we got home, we got his home set-up in a rabbit cage (shoutout to my in-law’s for the loan) and I stuck him in the master bath because I had no idea where else to put him.
The girls were in love with him – I could tell.
Aaron worked super late that night but when he finally came home, he walked into the bathroom and looked back at me and said, “WHY? You didn’t pay for it did you? Where did it come from?”
I told him the story, and also shared that I was indifferent on if we kept him or not, I just couldn’t leave him in the road.
We talked about it briefly (but it was so late and we were both exhausted) but the morning was the real deal sealer.
The girls came out of their room with such excitement and ran to Aaron proclaiming “DADDY!!!! DID YOU SEE THE KITTY?????”
I got the girls situated with breakfast and Aaron brought out the kitten to sit in his lap. He asked for their version of what happened. Surprisingly, it was pretty accurate to what happened.
“And then we went to WalMart & got it food, kitty potty and some toys!” Rylie said before taking a spoonful of cereal.
“That seems like some longterm planning there.” Aaron commented. Rylie nodded and took another bite of cereal. Aaron then gave the news they had been waiting for –
“Okay girls. We can keep the kitten.”
An eruption of joy spilled out and I quickly followed up by telling them they had to help take care of him. They agreed and danced with excitement.
Aaron also shared that we (he and I) thought his name should be Toothless since he looks similar to the dragon Toothless from the girls’ favorite movie “How To Train Your Dragon.” The biggest grin came on their faces and it was a unanimous choice. It steamed from the night before when Aaron went to pick him up from his cage, he crouched down and his big green eyes stared up at us and it looked exactly like Toothless from a movie scene. It was an obvious choice.
So here we are – a kitten we didn’t plan on sitting in my lap, dancing on my desk and making us laugh.
Welcome to the Shaver Crew, Toothless.
[…] >meet Toothless […]