Monday, July 14, 2008

surprises

About a month ago we had a little black kitty adopt us. About a month before that we had to put down one of our nearly 18-year-old cats and the plan was to keep the one until she, too, was gone and then we'd have none.

"Little Black Kitty" - as we called it - had other ideas. The cat showed up and then wouldn't go away and we decided to keep it. I checked the Humane Society, Craigslist, the local newspapers, and a couple of other lost & found pet websites for a few weeks but nothing matched. We decided we'd take it to the vet to see if it was chipped and get it checked out. The other thing was that, according to a couple of people we know and we agreed, it seemed that the cat recently had kittens or was pregnant. So that was something else to get checked out, too. After a few weeks of it not leaving and truly taking up residence with us, my step-daughter said the cat's name was Violet. We thought that fit pretty well, although we changed it to Violetta.

This morning I got a call that a woman and her son rode over on bicycles to see if their cat, "Lester," was hanging around. [Correction: the woman came by with a baby stroller; shows you how well I listened to the first message!] Seems that "Lester" is their cat: neutered and all shots done. He ran away or drifted off or something and they did pick him up once before and took him back to their house. He apparently ate and then took off again. Back to us.

We thought we had girl cat with male tendencies. The other people thought they had a boy cat with very female tendencies, or, as they said, a girly boy (not said in a derogatory manner).

I'm not there, but my partner said the two parties have agree to an "open adoption" since Lester has made it clear where his primary home is. They have visitation rights but he lives with us.

My idea a couple weeks ago to name the now-him cat "Mulder" was not as far off as we originally thought. I never would have thought to nor actually named him "Lester" - but that's what he responds to.

So...

We have a gay cat named Lester instead of a potentially pregnant female cat named Violetta. Perhaps another one of those life lessons: careful what you say you will never have because the universe may figure out how to give you exactly that!