For many years M and T have asked us for a pet. I think we shocked them in January when we said we would "think" about getting them a cat in October. I wanted to get the kids backing the fall swing of things and it was 10 months off. Both M and T wrote "Cat?" somewhere on our October calendar. It was quite sweet.
As we have continued to struggle with M I have cried out to God and felt such a loss as to what to do. One night as I cried and pleaded with God I felt Him whisper what I have many times felt Him nudge me to... we need to get a pet! M has longed for a dog, but I am just not sure that I could ever handle a dog, so the quest to truly consider a cat began.
Back in 1992 my family got two small kittens from my grandparents farm. They filled my pre-teen and teen years with so much love. I remember crying drama filled tears into my cats fur many many times. I loved those sweet cats and I was excited (and nervous) to embark on this cat journey with our family.
My grandma may live many 100's miles away, but that doesn't prevent us from connecting often. I try to call her during a walk every other week so we can keep each other up to speed on the things in our lives. Believe it or not, she is pretty hard to get ahold of in the summer. She may be 86, but her garden and mowing her many acres of grass keep her outdoors most of the time in the summer. I usually check her forecast before calling and wait for rainy or hot days so I know she will be inside. Everyone once in a while during the spring I would talk with my Grandma about how we were considering cats.
I was talking with Grandma in mid-July and she told me about some of the kittens she had at her farm. They were bouncing around near their mother. She said there were four little babies. Knowing that we had a mid-August trip planned to her area I asked her more about them. I asked her if she could catch them for our family. She said, "Oh honey, I wish I could catch them for you. Their mother is wild and they are wild. There is no way that we could make them tame." We talked some more about a neighbor she had that might have baby kittens to share. I lamented that I really wanted kittens from her farm, but that I would consider getting kittens from her neighbor's farm as well. I think part of me was still not really sure about actually bringing home pets, but my heart was warming to the idea more every day. I just had worry in my heart wondering if this was really the right thing to do... how would I know what to do...
The next day at my Grandma's farm something crazy happened. She heard some loud and sad sounding "mews." For some reason the mama cat abandoned her babies. My grandma was able to secure three of the four that day. The following day she found the final kitten. They were so scared and tiny. They came to her and she rescued them. She immediately tried to give them milk. This made them very sick. She called her vet and he told her about kitten milk replacer and other special food for tiny tiny kittens. Grandma went and got these special things and gave the kittens vitamin E which is her very special cure for helping all sick pets!
That day Grandma went to serve as a second hand clothing store. At the beginning of the shift they shared prayer requests and prayed for the sweet baby kittens to live. Grandma had to leave her shift early because she was so concerned about the baby kittens.
Amazingly, the kittens slowly began to respond to the milk replacer and started to move around. Grandma said the first couple of weeks were very scary as far as their survival. After that they started to purr and cuddle and eventually play.
I didn't know any of this was happening. I got a call on my Birthday (July 30th) from Grandma. She told me the above story and I just kept saying, "Are you serious?" I couldn't believe that God orchestrated all of these details. It reminded me so much of M's referral story honestly. She told me she still didn't feel like they were totally out of the woods and that I shouldn't tell the kids anything about it yet. I was SO EXCITED when I got off the phone with her. Hearing this news was definitely the highlight of my Birthday!
In the days following my Birthday I tried to call my grandma many times and didn't get ahold of her. I knew that the kittens were doing a bit better from talking with my parents, but I wanted to get the go ahead to tell M and T on M's Birthday which is August 8th.
My grandma started caring for them in a small cage and then moved them to a larger area and then eventually moved them to an entire side of the former chicken barn. She has quite a collection of things in there and the cats had great fun playing with everything they found. Grandma took such amazing care of the kittens.
I was able to talk with her before the 8th and she told me they were doing well and that we could tell the children that we were getting kittens from her farm!
We gave M many gifts for his Birthday, but the final package with a BIG box with a piece of paper in the bottom of it letting the children know that our family was getting two cats! They were so excited! We mainly made a video of the news, but here are some photos.
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| M: What could be in this box? |
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| M: At first I didn't understand the note... then I did!!!!! |
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| T: I decided to be a kitten and play in the box! |
They needed to wait a week and a day after learning about the cats before they got to meet them. While they waited they told simply everyone their exciting news! When we went to a Dr's office they would tell the receptionists. When we went to church or a store they would tell every person they knew.
In the days of waiting I began to reflect on the kittens and the trauma they experienced. Their mama abandoned them when they were so very young. They were alone and hungry and very sick. They nearly died and were rescued by my grandma. I couldn't help but think over and over again about M's story and some connections between his story and the cat's story. I will admit this caused me some fear. Taking in cats with trauma ... what were we getting into? I kept relying on the fact that God faithfully provided these specific cats for us and that we could trust that we could handle them once they were in our care.
My mom was able to text us some photos of the kittens so we could get an idea of what they looked like. We knew there was a mostly white one, a gray and white one, and two orange ones. We didn't know which ones to choose, but we repeated over and over again to the kids that we were taking two with us and leaving two behind.
Finally the morning of August 16th came and we were able to go to Grandma's farm and meet the cats. Preparing to meet them felt a tiny bit like meeting our children for the first time. We had seen the photos and now we would be able to hold them in real life. Grandma caught them and put them in a box before we arrived. She was worried they would run and hide and this way we would be able to really see them and play with them.
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| M and T: We were so ready to meet the kittens! |
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| Awwww |
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| M: They were so tiny! |
They were ALL SO CUTE! I just loved feeling their soft kitten fur. I told Brandon that this is why they never put prospective adoptive parents in a room of children and tell them to choose. I was crying thinking about the ones we wouldn't choose. I hated to leave any behind.
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| The only cat photo with all of us! |
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| T: The light orange one loved me! |
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| Buddies! |
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| T: I like the white one too! |
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| M: I was holding three of them, sort of. |
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| M: The dark orange one is so good at cuddling. We HAVE to get this one! |
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| M and T: The Gator is the best way to travel on the farm! |
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| M and T: We took a ride before lunch! |
We were actually able to hold them in the morning before lunch and then again after lunch. We were joyfully surprised when we went out to the chicken barn after lunch and the cats didn't run away from us!
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| T: I loved playing with the dark orange one. |
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| T: I think I like the light orange one best! |
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| Couldn't resist this sweet photo of my did playing with the cat. |
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| T: I just can't put her down. |
The following day we went to the farm again and had some cuddle time with the cats. Brandon and I were pretty set on the dark orange and light orange kittens, but T was starting to fall for the white kitten. With some convincing she also decided that she would be fine with the two orange kittens.
On Saturday night (the 18th) my mom and I went to the store to buy food and litter and other cat supplies. I think that is when it really hit me that we were truly getting kittens!
On Sunday morning we packed everything up at my parents and headed to my grandma's farm to pick up the cats. My tummy was in knots. It truly felt like another adoption day. My mind was racing with all sorts of thoughts and emotions. We were going to be taking these kittens away from their sibling cats. We were taking them away from the farm and all they knew there. We were taking them away from my grandma who loved them and cared for them. It was all so bittersweet.
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| M: Is this real life??? |
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| Grandma with the kiddos and the kittens. |
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| One last photo of grandma with all four kittens. |
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| I am so thankful for the way my grandma loved on our kittens. She is amazing! |
After some playing with the kittens and lots of good-byes we loaded them up in a large tote with a screen over it in the back of the van. We created a small litter box, a place for their food and water and a cozy nest for them to travel home on. We were guessing the ride would be about 7 hours and that we would stop a couple of times.
Shortly after we got on the road they began to mew, a lot. My heart broke for them. They were scared and confused, missing all they lost and trapped in the tote in our moving van. They mewed off and on for about 2 hours. They were silent for a while and mewed again. After about 3.5 hours they didn't mew the rest of the car ride. The kids were content and Brandon and I were able to just keep going. We managed to drive the entire way home without stopping. Because it was Sunday they actually stopped all the roadwork and had the cones pushed back allowing travel in both lanes and without a lowered speed limit. This meant we made it home from my grandma's in 6:10! Impressive!
Before we got home we told the kids the master plan. We would leave the cats in the carrier and open the windows and run in the house to use the bathroom. Then Brandon would carry the cats in the tote up to the office and we would open the tote there. We would then immediately get their litter box and food set up and get them settled. The kids were agreeable to the plan.
Once we got them settled we left them alone a while and unpacked. The kids did play with them more before bed and I will admit that Brandon and I went into the office after the kids were in bed and just watched them play for over an hour. M told us it was one of the best days of his life!
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| Happy kids, overwhelmed cats! |
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| Starting to play! |
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| They were so cute! |
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| All tired out. They both fell asleep on my arm. |
The kittens settled into their new home quite well. We are going to keep them in the office for a while. They are still quite tiny and fragile. Our home office has lots of room and a cozy couch. Because M now has the desk there is even more space. We think that even when the cats have more free reign of the house, it will be a nice safe place that they will go to when afraid. We want them to acclimate to the office and to us quite a bit before we allow them to venture out. My mom read that this helps cats to not feel so scared. This is what we did with our cats years ago and it worked so it only makes sense to try it again with our kittens.
Today (Monday) has been a day of learning about the kittens. M chose to call the darker one Sunshine. T chose to call the lighter one Buttercup (like the middle of a Reese's). We played with them a lot in the morning and I think they were quite overwhelmed. This afternoon we went to the pool and then Brandon read to the kids in the office while I was making dinner. It was good for them to be in the office but not playing with the cats, just sitting. Tonight we said goodnight to them at 7:00 and we will let them rest until morning. We are going to try not to overwhelm the cats so much tomorrow.
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| Buttercup and Sunshine LOVE playing with this feather. |
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| M: I was protecting myself from scratches! |
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| They are so playful! |
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| Attempting cuddles. |
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| Sunshine loves to curl up in hats. |
They have their first vet visit tomorrow afternoon. We will finally find out if they are boys or girls. We think they are both boys, but we could be totally wrong. I will keep you all posted!
To those of you who read they entire post, I am impressed! Thank you for sharing our cat journey with us. Join us in praising Jesus for these sweet additions to our family! Please pray with us that these cats will bring a calming presence into our home and that loving a cat will bring healing to our children and loving children will be healing to our cats.
* Yes, I am going to be blogging again daily or close to it so check back often!
*Yes, I will tell the rest of the story of our road trip to my family in a different post, I just wanted to tell the cat story in real time since it is VERY exciting for our family.
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