New Kitty!

Introducing…. well… he doesn’t have a name yet. We’d actually love suggestions, and since comments are turned off on this blog, head over to twitter or facebook to help us name him!

Here’s the backstory:

As many of you know, my cat Sam was diagnosed with cancer last year and we had to put him to sleep. I wrote all about it here. But the long and short of it is that Sam was an amazing cat — a constant companion by my side who brought joy and love into my life for fifteen years. After he was gone, one of the things that surprised me the most was how quiet the house was. I’d gotten used to the clack of his claws against the hardwood floors as he trotted in to keep me company, or his soft snores as he slept.

I knew that it would be a while before adopting another kitty, but this fall I realized I was ready. I’d always been interested in an orange tom — JP had a fantastic orange male kitty named Spazz in college and my sister has had two wonderful orange male cats (Mowgli and Jax). But surprisingly, finding an orange male isn’t easy! I spent more time on various kitty adoption sites than I should admit, but never came across the right cat (there were several I fell for, but they ended up getting adopted before I had a chance to meet them). After having such a wonderful kitty in Sam, I knew I didn’t want to settle.

Then this past weekend I went home to Greenville to visit family. It just so happens that the Greenville Animal Control isn’t that far away from my dad’s house, and so I went to take a look. And there he was — an orange dude with a scraped up nose (there’s something about the cats with scrapes or cuts that tugs at my heart). We took him into another room and that was it — I knew he was the one. He was curious, but kept coming back to stroll across JP’s lap or nudge me for pets. When he flopped onto his back, that clinched the deal.

We had to leave him at the shelter to get neutered so we didn’t bring him home until yesterday. He’s yet to meet the rest of the pack, but we’re pretty sure he’ll hold his own. As I type this he’s curled up against me, a paw resting on top of my hand. He’s taken to being an author’s cat quite quickly — as soon as I opened the computer he strolled right across the keyboard and flopped down, adding a few jumbled words to my latest WIP. It’s even hard for me to take pictures because he nudges my hand for pets every time.

We don’t know much about his background, just that he was found running around Greer, SC “at large” (yes, our cat was a criminal). The shelter held him for 5 days to see if anyone claimed him and no one did. They estimate him at two years old, but we feel like he may be closer to one. Greenville Animal Control is a kill shelter, so we were glad to adopt from them knowing we were saving a life. They have a wonderful Facebook page set up for folks to help sponsor pets who need it (with folks pledging amounts like $5-$10). Check it out if you’re interested in donating or adopting — the link is here. And a huge thanks to all of the organizations out there working with shelters to adopt out pets and encourage spay/neuter to keep the unwanted pet population down. Most county shelters or humane societies offer free or very low cost spay/neuter so keep that in mind if you ever need it!

I still miss Sam, his ornery meow, and his head bonks. I think if he were around to meet the new kitty, he’d say something along the lines of “get off my lawn!” I know it’s still early days, but I feel incredibly lucky to have stumbled across another cat who has lots of love to give and personality to spare. Now if we could only figure out his name! We feel like it’s right on the tip of our tongue…

More pics because who doesn’t like cat pics on the internet?! And if you want even more pics, follow me on Twitter — we all know I’ll be posting a ton there in the near future!