12-29-14 – Going Home

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Going Home

Once upon a time, there were four little kittens living wild with their mama and their auntie.

They were living wild, but they were very well taken care of and fed by residents of an apartment complex. Unfortunately, the apartment complex had rules about how many cats could live in each apartment, so one of the residents called Challenger’s House and told Susan about the kittens and asked for help. Susan told Byron that there would be room in a foster home soon, and that he should see if he could catch the kittens.

Byron was able to catch one of the kittens, but before he could do more than that, the mama cat moved her kittens to another location.

Byron brought that one kitten, an adorable little black boy kitten, to Petsmart and turned him over to Winnie. He was just a sad little stinky mess (the kitten, that is, not Byron)(haha).

Winnie kept that little black kitten at her house for a week, and then handed him over to his new foster mom (that’s me), and she hoped that she’d be able to catch his brother and sisters soon.

Only a few hours later, after the little black kitten had been settled in the foster room, the phone rang, and it was Kathie telling me that Winnie had trapped two more kittens. I drove into Huntsville and picked up a scared, sad little tuxie boy and his even more scared tortie sister.

We named the little tuxie Jethro Tull and the little black kitten Thunderclap Newman and the little tortie Molly Hatchet. It took a while – what seemed like forever – but when I go back to read the posts from the end of November, we only had the kittens for about four days before I was reporting that I’d held both boys in my lap. They continued to be skittish, but by the time their last sibling, sister Lizzy, joined them two weeks later, the boys were both climbing into my lap without hesitation.

Lizzy, three weeks ago. (Um, what??? How is it possible that she’s only been with us three weeks? She’s such a little lovebug now!)

If this were a video on a news program, we’d switch from pictures of the scared little kittens, to pictures of a home in Oregon.

In Oregon, Stone Phillips would voiceover, Bonnie and Marc saw the little tuxie known as Jethro, and they fell in love.

(There’d be a picture of the cat heart emoji, because I like to think that that’s how they looked when they first saw him.)

So, as Stone Phillips said up there, Bonnie and Marc saw Jethro, who reminded them of their dear departed boy Rufio, and they decided that they wanted to adopt him. As it so happened, Karin – who transported Gus and Mike five years ago – was going to be in town for the holidays, and was willing to take Jethro back with her. The application was completed, Susan did the interview over the phone and checked references, and gave it the okay.

(Bonnie and Marc rescue tuxedo cats, because they – along with black cats – are the most euthanized cats in the country. They have – well, before yesterday they did – 7 tuxies!)

We were all set to send Jethro home, and I told him every night about his wonderful new home.

BUT THEN.

Bonnie and Marc usually adopt in pairs, so that the new cats have a “security blanket” in the form of a sibling. Marc decided that he wanted to adopt TC too – but he wanted it to be a surprise for Bonnie!

I was thrilled, but very worried that I’d blow the surprise. Somehow, I didn’t.

In fact, on Saturday I sent Bonnie this picture and told her I was sending a cuddle buddy in the carrier with Jethro, so he wouldn’t be lonely.

I put harnesses on Jethro and TC for a few hours each day so they’d get used to them. Jethro handled his harness just fine from the beginning. TC initially did this… well. Have you ever seen the way a cave cricket jumps? They bounce straight up in the air with springy abandon with no particular focused direction, just ::boing::boing::boing:: TC did that the first few times I put the harness on him, but after the first couple of days, he just gave me a dirty look and went slinking off to sulk.

I spent as much time with the boys as I could this last week, hugging and snuggling them, and telling them what a wonderful home they were going to, and how happy they’d be (and marveling at the fact that just 5 1/2 weeks previously, they were living wild and on the edge of feral!)

Saturday afternoon, I snuggled them extra, put their harnesses on, put them in the carrier, and headed for the shelter, where I handed them over to Karin (she had to leave for the Nashville airport super early yesterday morning, so it made sense for her to have them with her overnight.)

In the moment before I grabbed him to harness him up before taking him to the shelter. He suspected NOTHIN’.

Pretty boy, in his pretty purple harness.

“TC, why you sulking?”
“I LOOK STUPID.”
“No way, you look fabulous!”
“I LOOK STUPID. Stupid harness!”

“He says he looks stupid.”
“What? That’s insane! Red is obviously his color!”

Little poser.

The pic is blurry, but seriously. Is that a good color on him, or what?

Last few minutes of play time.

Yesterday, I was kind of on pins and needles, hoping that there’d be no issues with the flights. Luckily, everything went very smoothly. The boys made it there safe and sound, and Bonnie was completely surprised when Marc told her that she was not only getting a little tuxie, but also a little house panther!

On Facebook, Bonnie reported:

TC and Jethro were travel sweethearts…on the drive from Portland to Salem, Jethro never stopped purring and TC cuddled up in my arms and slept. Once home, they’ve eaten, played, eaten some more, been loved and posed for family photos. They are two special boys!

And she sent pictures of them. LOOK how relaxed!

LOVE. IT!!!!

Tomorrow is going to be a TC-and-Jethro picfest, so I can share the rest of the pictures I took of them while they were here (they are very photogenic boys!) I know that Bonnie and Marc will update us on the regular, and I know without a doubt that those boys are going to have a wonderful life in Oregon!

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Well hello, Stefan. That’s quite the rough life you’ve got going on for yourself, isn’t it?

::smug::

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Previously
2013: No entry.
2012: No entry.
2011: Charlie Peppers finds himself in a pickle.
2010: No entry.
2009: He’s the happiest boycat on earth.
2008: No entry.
2007: I AM McStupid.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.

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