meow!
In the last couple of posts I've been mentioning that Jared was going to buy me a cat for my Christmas gift. We decided on Saturday that we were ready and so we went out to find our cat. Got to the MSPCA right at open, since (like I thought) there were a lot of people wanting to adopt. I had a "list" of what I wanted in a cat; female, 8-12 weeks old and preferably a dark gray/bluish coat. We didn't have many expectations since it was our first time out. We thought it was likely we'd find a cat, but we weren't going to be heartbroken if we couldn't find something we both liked.
The way the adoption center is laid out, there's a hallway with cages; one cat to a cage. There were about 12 of these. Then there's 2 glassed in playrooms with 10-12 cats in each. We looked briefly at everyone and didn't see anything that popped out. I went around to each cage and carefully looked inside making sure I don't overlook anyone. There were a lot of senior cats, a couple of kittens and some 1-3 year year olds. I saw a black kitten that I thought I may want to go back and consider, but then I got to one of the last cages. It didn't look like there was a cat in it, so I knelt down to look in the bottom and there she was. She was small so I thought she may have been a kitten. I looked up at the info sheet and it said, "Kittles. A year old female. FIV and FL negative. 1/2 Calico and Siamese." I looked at her again and she came right up to the door, but not like the other cats. The other cats all tried sticking their paws through the slots (claws extended) or had their noses sticking out. She just sat there looking up at me waiting for me to make the first move. When I stuck a tentative finger into the bars, she moved to rub the back of her head against me. She never once attempted to bite or scratch. She didn't even extend her claws. I thought she had been declawed at first. She's incredibly calm and gentle. Besides being a gorgeous cat, her personality and the way she behaved hooked me. We were there for about 20 more mins and Jared and I (or at least one of us) never strayed from the cage, just in case someone else realized what a good cat she was.
We finally tracked down an MSPCA employee and the "get to know a cat room" opened. Jared and I went inside with "Kittles" and decided that without a doubt this cat was for us. She's calm, but very inquizzative. She was more interested in us than the toy in the room. When she had us figured out she was looking out the window at all the people. She loves to watch what's going on, a bit like me Jared would say. We told them we wanted to take her home, they had us fill out an adoption application. We needed to show proof of ownership of our condo (brought a mortgage bill, woo for being prepared) and that was that. She was legally ours. She hadn't been spayed though, so we needed to wait til Monday to take her home.
Brought Ginny (not Kittles, thank you very much) home with us yesterday still groggy from the anesthesia. We opened her carrier and she eventually came out just to hide/sleep under our bed. A couple of hours later she poked a head out from under Jared's armoire and let us pet her a bit. Then back under the bed. She got hungry and ate some food, a lot actually which is good considering she had surgery that morning. Back under the bed. Around 10 o'clock, after various sightings, she decided she wanted to spend some time with us. She was half under the bed, half out and was very happy to have us petting her. We managed to get her on to the bed for about 5 minutes before she jumped off. She actually started waiting for us by the door when we left the room. Too cute. Then we went to sleep. She was mostly good, but she likes to scratch the bottom of her litter box really loudly from time-to-time. The only bad habit we've noticed so far is that she likes to knock water out of her dish. Not sure why exactly yet, but we'll work on it.
This morning she made a 10 minute appearance (again half under the bed) after Jared left and just before I did. I feel so bad leaving her home. I wish I could have taken a half day today, but I really can't. Jared couldn't either. I hope we get home and find her under the bed sleeping with nothing on the floor or knocked over. We'll see. I want it to be 5:00 NOW! :P
Here's kitty photos!