Happy Gotcha Day anniversary to Tabby & Carbon, and an honor for Heimdall!

The PDX pride mommy here:

Wow, we've been so caught up in the kitten drama with Mama Leopard's kits that *blushes* I forgot that it is Tabby & Carbon's Gotcha Day Anniversary today!  So sorry!  It's 6 years ago today that they came home.  I saw a sign on the feed store in Clatskanie, Oregon, where my husband grew up.  The sign said, "Free Kittens".  All the way down to Long Beach and all the way back, Scott kept on saying, "I want a puddy!  Remind me to stop so we can look at them!"  I knew what we would find when we got back to the store, because I'd had a dream a few years earlier about it.

Sure enough, when we got back to the store, there was a bunny in a cage just outside the front door of the store, and further down the porch was another wire cage with two little kittens!  Just like in my dream!  We felt so bad for them, because it had been 90 degrees out and one of the kittens was black with long fur and didn't look very happy.  The other one was laying down in the litter box.  There was some food in the cage, but it didn't look like it had been eaten, and they had some water as well.

The clerk came out and told us the kittens were from different litters and the rest of the litters had already been adopted.  Just these two were left.  Scott picked up the black one, and immediately the kitten climbed up his shirt and perched on his shoulder and around his neck like a parrot, snuggling in and digging in his claws.  I picked up the little tabby one, and she snuggled into my elbow.  After a few minutes I handed the little one to Scott and picked his off his shoulder to snuggle.  The lady got a cardboard box for us and punched a few holes in it with a scissors, then we put the kittens in it.

When we got in the truck, we opened the box and four big eyes looked up at us.  I asked, "What are you going to name them?"  Scott replied, "Tabitha and Carbon.  A friend had two kittens with the same coloring and personalities, and that's what she named hers.  I helped her find them at the shelter, so that's what these two are going to be named."  We told them their names, and they settled down in the box.

After a while, Tabby decided she wanted to get out and see what the rest of the truck was like.  She liked watching out the windows, but then she wanted to crawl all over Scott when he was driving!  I kept having to pick her off him and try to hold her, while trying to keep her from going into the extended cab!  Carbon was not having a good ride.  He was way too warm, so he threw up a few times.  I cleaned it up each time, and he purred a little and licked my fingers while I petted him.

We put Tabby back in the box and closed them both in it while we went into the pet store to get supplies, because Scott wasn't prepared for adopting any cats.  I had agreed to adopt Skylar and Lydia a few days earlier, but we weren't living together yet, so the house was without anything for kitties.  Scratching post, litter box, two kinds of food, CHECK.  Toys, CHECK.

Once in the house, we put everything out for them and then opened the box.  Immediately, Carbon found Scott's work boot and hopped in it.  Mind you, he was only 5 weeks and Tabby was only 4 weeks at the time, so he fit perfectly in that boot!  He took a mini nap while Tabs explored, then he hopped out and explored, too.  I was eating some cake, and Tabby wanted to know what I was doing, so I lifted her onto the couch and she took a nosedive into the cake!  From that point on, she's loved cake, whipped cream, and any people food.  Carbon helped her clean up, of course.

Later on, we noticed the house was too quiet for a house with kittens.  We'd been watching a movie and letting them explore the house after showing them the food and litter box.  We just about turned the whole house upside down looking for them, and found them curled up in the top two drawers of Scott's dresser!  They were asleep, and looked at us like, "Well, we found comfy nap spots!  Why did you wake us up?"  They'd crawled up the back of the dresser behind the drawers, using the drawers as steps!

Heimdall has an honor today, as well.  He's Captain of the Week over at Cathugger!