Callie

I'm pretty sure the word 'smitten' was invented to rhyme with kitten because that's what I am. As I type this blog, I have a sweet little kitten napping in my lap, purring so serenely. I can think of only one other thing sweeter than this.

We pretty much always had cats growing up. I would say I am both a dog and cat person but, as cats are pretty low maintenance, we seemed to have them most. Just last summer, we lost my sweet cat, Libby, to stomach cancer. It was pretty heart breaking-- I'd had her since I was eleven. I knew I wanted to get a cat of our own but we'd just moved to this new place and signed a lease saying we wouldn't have pets. If we did, I was sure we'd have to pay a lot extra on rent. I was pretty resigned to the fact that we probably wouldn't have pets for a while. I also thought Bryan wouldn't really want one for a while but, to the contrary, we both kept bringing up the possibility of a kitten. Last Thursday when I was picking Bryan up from work he told me he had a surprise for me. He had called our property management company to see if it was even a possibility. They seemed completely fine with it and said all we'd need to do was pay a pet deposit that was refundable and it would be fine! We were overjoyed and were going to go to the Idaho Humane Society the next day.

A week or so before we moved out of Utah our friends, the Pfaffs, started fostering some kittens for the Utah Animal Adoption Center. We hung out with them one night and were able to play with all the cute little kittens. There were two there that they had named Calvin and Hobbes that had orange/black/white coloring. Since Libby was a calico, I've always had a soft spot for cats with this coloring. All the kittens were cute but I was especially drawn to these two. Perhaps this visit was why we started thinking about the possibility of having a cat.

At the end of their time fostering, Jewel and Pfaffy adopted Hobbes for their own. After initially thinking the pair were boys, they found out they were really girls. It was around this time that we found out that we could get a kitten and told them. They kept telling us we should drive down to Utah to adopt Calvin so we could have matching "friendship kitten bracelets." I thought there was no way we'd drive all the way to Utah for a cat, even though in the back of my mind I kept thinking about how drawn I'd been to her and how I was worried I'd be disappointed in another cat from a humane society here. Bryan told me I should call the store they were at to make sure she was still there and when she was he surprised me and told me he really thought we should go! (He hates road trips even more than me!)

Utah Animal Adoption are the ones to actually adopt out a pet but they are housed in pet stores. Our little kitty was at a Petco in Farmington, UT. I called ahead and asked if we could reserve her and they said no. I explained that we were coming from Boise, ID for this cat and it would be a six hour car ride and could they please do it. She said they could hold her just for the day but we had to get there before the store closed. I said, "Okay, do you need my name or anything?" and she said something like, "Oh yeah, what is your name?" That felt a little fishy but I decided to just go with it and picked Bryan up from work. We hurried and packed and were out the door on our quest for kitten!

Five-ish hours later we got to the store (so much easier to type out than to experience) and I said, "I called earlier about reserving this kitten here." The employees hadn't heard anything about it (I told you it felt fishy!) but they hadn't sold any kittens that day so she was still there. They started on all the paperwork and then this girl started taking us up and down every aisle showing us what we could get for our cat... (Generally, I like to be left to my own devices when shopping...). The Pfaffs met us there and we headed to the register to buy all our kitten supplies and kitten!

Bryan rang up all the supplies while I was chatting with our friends and then the girl at the register said something like, "This is weird. I keep trying to ring the kitten up but it won't let me." They got the assistant manager, who said we couldn't use a debit or credit card because the money needed to go to the UAAC. We didn't have cash but I happened to have some counter checks so that wasn't a problem but then he said, "Actually, you can't adopt this kitten today. We need a signature from either the manager or someone from UAAC and neither are here right now. You will have to come back tomorrow at 9 AM." We were a bit taken aback and disappointed but Bryan and I are the types to just go along with it. We were ready to leave and come back the next day but the Pfaffs thought that was ridiculous, especially since they'd been the ones to foster the kittens in the first place. Jewel thought that possibly she could sign the paperwork since she volunteered at UAAC so they got her on the phone with someone from there to see what they said. That person referred her the person in charge of the cats at UAAC, someone who Jewel actually knew, who told her that it would be fine to go ahead without the signature. We told the assistant manager that, who looked unconvinced and went to call his manager. The other employees thought this was pretty ridiculous as well.

The guy came back and said, "Unfortunately, we can't take a check." We thought, "Oh, good, they're at least going to let us adopt the kitten today," and then he continued, "but it doesn't matter anyway because you can't adopt her today." Pfaffy and Jewel were very displeased and it was pretty evident on their faces. They said something to the guy like, "Why have cats here to adopt if you can't actually adopt them? That doesn't make any sense! Does it make sense to you?" The guy squirmed uncomfortably and said, "Um, no?" but he didn't really have any control so he couldn't do anything about it. We left disappointed but ready to come back first thing the next morning.

On the drive back to the Pfaff's house, Bryan and I talked about the whole thing and discussed what we wanted to say to the manager when we went in the next day. We wanted to tell her that we understood the process but that the employees should all know what it was and wouldn't get so far as to get most of the paperwork done and have us up to the register, ready to adopt before finding out we couldn't.

The next morning we came in and said, "We were trying to adopt this kitten yesterday but we didn't have a signature or something." The employee had no idea what we were talking about. Then we said, "We were supposed to get the signature of the manager-- Jeannette, or something?" A light went on and she headed to the back to find the manager. When she came back she had the paperwork signed and we never even got to meet the manager but we were, finally, able to adopt our kitten. Suffice it to say they will be getting a less than pleased review on the internet.

Anyway, we were very glad to have that drama behind us and to now finally have our new kitten! We decided to name her Callie since she'd previously been called Calvin but now we knew she was a girl. We took her to the Pfaffs, then Bryan's mom's house and then finally on our five hour car ride. Poor Callie had a lot of change over the weekend! She was so good in the car and didn't make a peep--she slept most of the time. Here are a few pictures I snapped on the ride:

One thing I love about Callie is how interactive she is. She plays with us and comes to find us to do so instead of keeping to herself. As I wrote this post, she woke up and started climbing all around me. I set her on the ground but she just kept climbing up into my lap. She loves being around us and we love having her around!

Yeah, my kitten is pretty much really adorable.