Happy 5th Gotcha Day Annifursary to Freya & Heimdall!

Happy 5th Gotcha Day Annifursary to us!  Five years ago today, we were kittens at Salem Friends of Felines in Salem, OR.  We didn't know it then, but our lives were about to change drastically, and for the better!  SFOF is a wonderful no-kill shelter, and they have kitties in rooms where the public can come in and socialize with them, plus foster homes for those who need more direct socialization.

We loved being part of the kitten room clowder, but we were 3 1/2 months old and the oldest in the kitten room.  We really dreamed of a home of our own, like our other two siblings had.  They were adopted before our new purrents met us.  Instead of our current names, Freya was Furkins and Heimdall was Fonz.  Do we look like those names to you?  Our siblings also had names starting with F.

The day before we got adopted, Mommy had seen Heimdall's picture online on the Save A Cat game on Facebook.  It's a game that uses real shelter cats' profiles from Petfinder and donates ad-based revenue to the participating shelters.  She and Daddy had been thinking about getting one or two tuxedo kittens, but it was only two days after Skylar had passed and they weren't thinking about doing that right away.  Little did they know what Skylar and Lydia had planned for all of us!

Anyway, Mommy saw Heimdall's picture and noticed how much he looked like Skylar.  She went running out to Daddy and showed him the picture, then he searched for the rest of our biological family on Petfinder.  He found Freya's picture, and noticed right off how much she looked like Lydia!  The rest, as they say, is history!

Mommy and Daddy went down the next day and met us.  At first, we didn't want to interact with them, but then they found our favorite toys (a fleece wand and a feather wand) and played with us for a bit.  We were surprised, though, when Daddy came back in with a carrier and the lady who volunteered there.  The lady picked us up and put us in the carrier, with Daddy reassuring us and Mommy watching from outside the room.  We cried a bit, but once we got into the car Freya put her paws through the carrier mesh the whole way home.  Heimdall curled up against her in the back of the carrier.

We got our new names on the way home.  Mommy named Freya and Daddy named Heimdall, which is kind of cool because Daddy is Freya's person and Mommy is Heimdall's person.  That's the way everyone knew it was going to be, too, because Mommy was Skylar's person and Daddy was Lydia's.  So why wouldn't it be expected that the same would be true for us?  Freya is the Norse goddess of war and beauty, and Heimdall is the Norse god who is the guardian of the Rainbow Bridge.

Once we got home, we came out of our carrier with our tails and heads held high, exploring our new home with all the excitement and wonder that comes with kittenhood!  Our new family greeted us like long-lost friends, and we've been here ever since!