In 1990, when our son was three and our daughter was two, we got our first cat from a friend's litter of farm cats. We named him Stretch.
Then in September 1999 while I was walking to work, I heard a persistent meowing coming from my neighbor's bushes. I looked but couldn't see anything. I was late so I continued on to work and called my daughter, who happened to be home from school that day because she was not feeling well. I told her to go over to the neighbor's to see if she could find the cat.
She found the frightened kitty and had to literally crawl into the prickly evergreen bushes to rescue her -- getting scratched and bitten in the process. This little white furbaby was approximately 9 weeks old, skinny, wild, and as we soon found out -- deaf.
Whitey has been a joy to us and her "brother", Stretch.
The following autumn, after seeing pictures in our local newspaper of dogs up for adoption at our Humane Society, my husband and I started discussing the possibilities of adopting a young, already housebroken dog. I called the next morning and talked to one of the ladies at the Humane
Society and told her of our intentions. She mentioned a few possible dogs that we might be interested in, so I made plans with her to set up a time the next day to meet with her.
After eating our dinner that night, my 12-year-old daughter and I decided to take a walk on a beautiful October evening, so we put on our sweatshirts and headed west. We only got a block from our house (coincidentally not far from where we had found Whitey the previous year)
when we heard a tiny, mournful, meowing coming from behind some discarded
metal pieces in an alley.
It was dark, so we couldn't tell, but we knew there was more than one kitten there. I ran home and grabbed a flashlight and a can of cat food to lure them out, while Dayna stayed with the kittens. They were very vocaland scared, but we were finally able to grab both of them.
We hurried home with them snuggled up in our sweatshirts, and once we got them into the house, we fell in love with Graybie and Floomsy immediately. With our impending plans of adopting a dog practically flying
out the window, my husband and I kept those darling little girls. Moreover, last January, a very handsome stray whom we named Lamar, showed up at our house and proceeded to use the cat door to make himself at home. He is still with us too!
So I think I am destined to be a cat person for the rest of my life -- and I am loving every minute of it!
-- Kim Krowlek
