We Got a New Kitty!
About a month ago on the way to LD’s allergy shots, the kids and I saw something really sad. Just a few moments before we drove through an intersection, a cat was struck by a car. As we drove by, we could see that the cat was still alive. It’s head was up and it was looking all around. It was a busy intersection and cars were racing by it on both sides. I wasn’t able to turn around and berated myself for the next hour as we drove to the doctors and back for not returning sooner to help the cat. The kids and I talked about the cat a lot and we decided we’d go back and if it were still there, we would pick it up and take it to the vet. The kids were convinced we would then adopt it nurse it back to health. By the time we got back, though, the cat was gone. The kids were extremely disappointed. They already had visions of helping the cat and they wanted to know what happened to it.
The next day I had a dentist appointment which happened to be right at that same busy intersection. I happened to mention that cat and the dental hygienist said that someone in the office saw it happen. She said the car didn’t even slow down. She rushed down and with the help of two other women, crossed into the road, picked the cat up out of the road. It’s bones were obviously badly broken because they could hear the bones crunching. 🙁 With that sad story though, we had all seriously considering adding a kitty to our family.
When we left our dog at the kennel a couple weeks ago, Hubby and the kids saw a 1-year old kitten that needed a home. The kids could talk of little else for days.
A few days later we contacted the animal rescue and said that we would adopt her. They brought her by and we named her Starbuck (from Battlestar Galactica, not the coffee place!).
Starbuck has been extremely shy. She runs and hides in the shoe rack in Hubby’s closet or under our bed whenever we come in. But slowly we’ve been able to coax her out more and more. (She’s still separated from the other pets.) She’s very friendly, though.
So here’s who she shares the house with — besides us humans…
here are some cute photos of our lovely, friendly (and tolerant!) cat, Crystal Fire (the kids came up with that name!). She’s two.
This is Boomer. We got her from the RSPCA in Australia. She’s a Red Heeler, an Australian cattle dog. She’s full of energy and feels it’s her duty to keep the squirrels away. When she was a puppy she could jump our almost 6-foot fence, so her name (which is Aussie slang for a kangaroo) was quite appropriate! She’s five.
We also have some unofficial pets that have made their first appearance this spring… LD found a salamander (and promptly went to the Internet to find out what they eat!)
And a snake… which I didn’t identify. Guess we’ll be seeing lots more of those pretty soon as the weather warms up! Ugh!
I was going to write up an article about why it has been wonderful to have pets, but I saw that my colleague Bill Strickland wrote a fabulous article about the Benefits of Pets. Be sure to check out his article!
