Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Goodbye Kitty, 2

The Story of Pearl: Chapter Two

Rose was a sweet and gentle soul, through and through. Pearl was a capricious kitten filled with moods and whims, bouncing around one moment, cuddling the next. It was her inconsistency that made her so addictive.



Rose is The Constant



Pearl is The Variable

While I grew very close to both girls, they continued to grow—BIG. It wasn’t long before they were close to 2lbs. I seriously considered keeping Pearl, but the two sisters were pretty bonded, and three cats is a lot… I brought them to the shelter just before it closed on a Friday, so that the kittens would be up and at ‘em bright and early on Saturday morning—that way, they’d have the greatest chance of being adopted over the weekend. I said a tearful good-bye, then sat in my car in the shelter parking lot and cried. And cried. And cried.

What would become of them?? Especially Pearl. Rose was the sort of cat that I didn’t need to worry about. Her personality was easygoing, and she got along so well with other cats… Rose would be fine.

Pearl, on the other hand, was a very unique kitten. She needed lots of attention, activity and, most of all, space. I could see Pearl’s antics warming the heart of a future owner, but I could also imagine her as a destructive cat if she got bored and had nothing to do. Pearl couldn’t go to just any home. Had I made a mistake? I’d come close to keeping a foster kitten before, but never this close.

I was all worked up and in no condition to drive. And so of course, I called my mother. I shared The Story of Pearl and begged for advice. Should I adopt her? Ollie loved her, but she hen-pecked Theo… and Theo is my firstborn, so to speak, so I couldn’t forsake his happiness and ruin his life. What to do?!

My mom surprised me by offering to adopt Pearl herself! Her beloved cat Della had died in December 2008, and she was finally ready for another cat. Although Pearl was a handful, my mom said she was up for the challenge. The plan was this: I would raise Pearl as my own until Christmas, then bring her home on my flight to Michigan! I left a message for the shelter as soon as I got home and emailed my foster coordinator about Pearl.

My phone rang early the next day—it was the shelter! Was Pearl taken already? What had I done?!

Turns out, the kittens were not actually 2lbs yet. My at-home system of weighing was clearly inaccurate. I needed to come back to get them, I was told. Operation Kitten Rescue began! I hightailed it to the shelter to break them both out of Kitty Jail. It’s hard to say what the best part of their triumphant return home was; their joyful leap out of their carrier, or Theo’s look of shock and horror when he saw that they were baa-aaack.



Sisters! Doin' it for themselves.

Stay tuned to read about Pearl’s Reign, Rose’s Close Call, and more.

1 comment:

  1. Great narrative! We can hardly wait to read the next chapter :)

    ReplyDelete