Kitty shopping!

Okay, I think it is time to make the official blog announcement. WE HAVE A NEW KITTY! Several months after we lost our young friend Joe to some weird, disgusting attack on his lungs, we finally have another furry housemate. We adopted her from the Sioux Falls Humane Society on March 6th, but I dared not blog about her until my excitement had somewhat abated, lest I should sound like a 6th grade girl (right, Noelle?). For several weeks Kathy had been monitoring the Sioux Falls Area Humane Society website to see what cats they had on hand. It is a great site that has a list of dogs and cats that are up for adoption, with a small description, a photo and usually a short link to a YouTube video. The actual trip to Sioux Falls, however, kept getting put off. Finally, in early March, my niece Nicole and her husband Todd invited Kathy along for a shopping trip to Sioux Falls. I seized the opportunity and sent a text to Nicole, encouraging her to suggest a stop at the Humane Society while they were in town. It was decided that a pet carrier would be slipped into the back of the vehicle just in case. The plan was hatched and when Saturday came, I waited in painful anticipation for word from Sioux Falls that Kathy had made an adoption. After several texts and calls to my cell phone, I learned that she just couldn’t make a decision, and they were coming home empty-handed. I was bummed. Apparently, however, Kathy was also bummed, and when I suggested a return trip the following day, she consented. Ninety minutes later, we pulled up in front of the Sioux Falls Area Humane Society building east of town. It was hard not to get caught up in the excitement before we even entered the building. Jubilant children (and adults) were outside giving a test drive to several dogs who were bubbling with happiness at the prospect of making a new friend. Once inside, Kathy led the way to the kitty room, and I was about to fall in love…somewhere around six or seven times. A room with maybe 35-40 cages awaited me, filled with kitties passing the time as best you can in a cage. Half of the inhabitants barely noticed me walk by. The other half vied for my attention. We opened many of the cages—with a required trip to the Purel bottle between each—and held, petted and struggled to make a decision on which of these needy felines we would take home. The one Siamese mix kitty named Piper that Kathy had fallen for the previous day sealed her own fate by taking a bite out of her hand. Probably more a result of a long day of strangers handling her than her regular demeanor, but when you are making a choice that you have to live with for many years, the smallest thing can make you turn your attentions elsewhere. Unfortunately, as of today, poor Piper is still waiting to get adopted. (Maybe we should go back and rescue her?) In a cage near Piper was a small orange and white kitty named Fallyn that was doing everything in her power to get my attention. She meowed and meowed and stretched her “arms” out the front of her cage as far as she could, and fairly begged to be hugged. I could not resist her charms. When I opened the cage she fairly jumped into my arms and a round of purrs began immediately. She scaled every inch of the ample real estate that I call my body and made the most of her trip outside the cage. We took her in the “Get To Know Them Room,” and the hyper fluff ball jumped and played and spun. She was a handful, to say the least. Since we wanted to see all the kitties before we made a choice (and since Kathy didn’t really seem all that enamored with my frisky little orange friend) we tucked the reluctant tabby back in her cage. She immediately pressed the side of her furry face against the front of the cage and thrust her little arms out to me, meowing excitedly. It seemed that another potential owner who failed to succumb to her adorable presence was about to walk away, she no doubt was thinking. I wondered if all the previous potential owners who walked away experienced the same tug in his or her heart that I did. Next week: We added to our family…and you should too.