 Purred: Tue Jul 28, '09 1:08pm PST |
 | |  | | This is going to be LONG.
When I was young, my family had cats. After we moved, we couldn't have any more cats because my parents refused to have cats in the new house and dogs would kill any outside cats.
When my parents and sister moved into the new house, I basically moved into my aunts house across the street. I talked that poor woman into letting me keep gerbils, hamsters, spiders, a bearded dragon, mulitple fish... but I could never talk her into a cat.
When I moved out of her house and into my grandfather's place, I wasn't even going to try for a cat. He is a self-proclaimed cat-hater and doesn't tolerate animals in the house. uh-huh.
I was at church one Wednesday evening and the resident beagle, Billy, made his way across the field and under the fence. We were playing kickball or something but everyone stopped when we noticed these four little fuzzballs were following Billy across the field, jumping to make it through the tall grass. One of the kids yelled "Puppies!." I said, "Nope. Those are NOT puppies!" Dan (cousin, my age) and I dropped what we were doing and went over to them. There were four in all, a ginger tabby male, a black bicolor male, a grey and orange tabby female, and an orange and white female. I went straight to Amber and picked her up. It just clicked. I didn't want a cat. I couldn't have a cat. I HAD to have her. Poor kit was skin and bones, and so were her siblings. She might have been four or five weeks old then. She let me pick her up and hold her a few seconds, then she hopped up on my shoulder, walked across to the other shoulder, and jumped down. She followed me around the rest of the evening. It took Dan 2o mins to convince me that I had to leave her there, I couldn't take her on the church van but that we would come back.
The next day, He called me at 8:00 in the morning. He had gone to get the kittens. Both males and one of the females had a home. There was one unaccounted for kitten and it just happened to be the one he had to pry away from me.
I went and got her and brought her home. I had to negotiate for quite a while. Yes, I would have her spayed. Yes, I would keep fleas off of her and get her a scratching post. Yes, I would pay for food and cat litter. No, she wouldn't destroy his leather couch.
In the beginning, she was an "outside" cat that was only allowed in at night. Gradually, I started letting her in earlier in the evening and letting her out later in the day. Then he decided that she could only be in the house when someone was home to supervise her. I started "forgetting" to let her out when we left. I "forgot" more and more often. It took over a month, but she eventually graduated to housecat status. Now she goes outside when she wants to, but is queen of the house. She is an only cat. I rescued some kittens and found homes for them. She didn't respond well to that, so I guess she is destined to be an only cat.
I made a list of possible names. Amber was on the list because of her brilliant eyes. That was the name she responded to. She chirped. It stuck. |  |  | |  |
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) and Stormy got his name from his striped grey fur (with white parts) that looked like a stormy night to me!
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