Happy Gotcha Day Anniversary to Starla!

Starla writes:

Happy Gotcha Day Anniversary to me!  I remember the day I was gotcha'd by my forever family!  I had wintered out the ice storm in their basement and it was finally starting to be spring.  I was coming inside to visit them frequently, along with the rest of my biological family (Smokey, Little Bit, and Boo-Boo Kitty).  Smokey and I were both in heat, so my forever purrents asked the people who actually owned me (two doors down) if they could adopt us, and the people said yes.  Smokey became a foster, and was then adopted to Mommy Erin and became her forever kitty.  I was going to be a foster, but something wonderful happened!  Besides getting spayed, that is, which in itself was a wonderful thing.  Not the surgery, but the fact that I didn't have to worry about that anymore.

The wonderful thing that happened was this:

I was brought inside so that I could have my surgery the next day.  After my surgery, Skylar curled around me on the futon and looked up at our purrents, pleading with his eyes for permission to keep me.  How could they deny him this wish, when he'd lost his sister a few months before, and we'd all lost Sara Kitty a few weeks before?  Of course, they told him that he could adopt me as his kitty!  Yep, that's right!  I was adopted by another kitty!

Here we are snuggling together, just after Skylar asked Mommy and Daddy if he could keep me!

He and I were best buddies until he went to the Bridge a few years ago.  Now, my best buddies are Rori, the twins, and Panther.  I live in the bathroom (yes, I "graduated" from my isolation room due to the Prozac helping my anxiety) and have my own special cave in there under the sink cabinet.  And, guess what?  I don't even need the Prozac anymore!  I haven't taken any for the last month and a half!  I'm going to celebrate my gotcha day anniversary by going to eat with the other kitties in the dining room, venturing into the living room to use the scratcher, and greeting Grandma in the hallway when she gets up!  Grandma gave us tuna a couple days ago, and I even went out to eat it with everyone else, sharing a plate with Dare!

It's our Gotcha Day!

Four years ago today, Mommy and Daddy were on their way to Long Beach when Mommy saw a sign at the feed store in Clatskanie, Oregon. "Free Kittens". All the way down to the beach, Daddy kept on saying, "I want a puddy. We've got to stop on the way back to get a puddy. Don't let me forget."

So, on the way back, they stopped. Clatskanie is Daddy's hometown, too, even though he lives in Portland now. The feed store was closing, but Daddy saw a cage with two little kittens in it. Mommy saw a rabbit in a cage, and knew it was meant to be because she'd seen the rabbit in a dream. Of course, the rabbit didn't come home with us, but it was included in the dream when Mommy saw us coming home.

The lady at the feed store got us out of the outside cage, and Daddy held Carbon while Mommy held Tabby. Carbon immediately climbed up to Daddy's shoulder and perched there, while Tabby snuggled into Mommy's arms. Then they switched us around, and we snuggled in. The lady got a big cardboard box with holes punched in the top, and we were put in it.

It was sooo hot that day, and Carbon got sick in the box from heatstroke with his black fur and being outside. Mommy cleaned it up. Tabby wanted to climb all over the truck and sit on Daddy's shoulder while he was driving, so Mommy had to corral her in the passenger's side of the truck to look out the window most of the way home.

When we got home, the box was set in the middle of the living room and we were allowed to explore. Carbon immediately found Daddy's smelly work boots and dove headfirst inside, taking a little snooze. Tabby saw Mommy sit down on the couch and wanted to sit with her, but Mommy was eating a bowl of birthday cake. Tabby walked over on her unsteady legs, got up there, and dove headfirst into the cake bowl!

Later on, after we played and explored a lot, we went into the bedroom while Daddy and Mommy were watching a movie. All of a sudden, they realized it was much too quite in a house that had just gotten kittens, so they went looking for us. No kittens in the kitchen. No kittens in the living room, or in the bathroom, or the office room. No kittens on or under the bed. Daddy thought of the dresser, so they looked there. Sure enough, Tabby was in the top drawer sleeping, and Carbon was in the next drawer sleeping. We woke up when our drawers were pulled open, yawned, and looked at our parents like, "Well, what did you expect? Now can we go back to sleep?"

Tabby was 4 weeks old, and Carbon was 5 weeks old.

Happy 4th Gotcha Day to us!!!