I mentioned yesterday on my Bluesky feed that we had adopted a new baby kitten. It was entirely unexpected and decided very quickly, because we're not exactly the kind of people to simply leave a kitten on the side of the road to perish. It just happens that the timing is very interesting...
You may recall that our eldest cat, Tigger, sadly passed away earlier this month on July 7th. We were (and, in many ways, still are) devastated and we miss him terribly. Just his quiet presence felt like it helped ground us, and not having that after 14 years of him being with us, has been a really heavy thing to carry. Even my other three cats have seemed distraught, and in my best efforts of trying to cope, I started fundraising just a little bit of money for Best Friends Animal Society on social media and during my live streams in Tigger's honor. They do wonderful work to help shelter pets (which Tig once was prior to us adopting him) find their forever homes, so it seemed like a no brainer. The initial goal was small because my community and online reach are pretty limited, but I was very pleased that we surpassed it and even made a few extra dollars. That fundraiser is still live for the next week and a half or so if anyone is interested in chipping in.
Needless to say, we weren't really looking for another little furball to add to the mix. Not just yet, anyway. It really felt like we were still healing and learning how to move on without Tig around. He was the best of us, and things just didn't feel right without him. But that changed very quickly yesterday afternoon on my nephew's drive home from work. He sent us the following photo in our family's Discord server along with the message, “I found this little one on the side of the road in the country 🥺🥺🥺”
The initial reactions were, of course, “Awww, poor little thing!” But the discourse quickly changed to, “What are we going to do with it?”
About this time last month, we also came across a stray black kitten that mysteriously appeared in our driveway, crying his little heart out. Although we had a great deal of pushback, we ultimately decided to keep him. His name is now Inkspot (or Inky), and he became our fourth and supposedly final cat we could conceivably manage to keep around. And like I said, even though Tigger was gone now, it's not like we needed or even wanted a “replacement.” As if such a thing were even possible. And even putting all of that sentiment aside, yet another cat means more veterinary bills, more cat food and litter, and another eventual heartbreak one day. Were we really prepared for all of that again?
But our area of the country has been trapped inside of what the weather people now call a “heat dome,” with heat indexes reaching upwards of 115º Fahrenheit the last 3 or 4 days. Yesterday was the first day in a while that we weren't under an “Extreme Heat Warning,” even though we are still living with an active Heat Advisory. I had also just seen a video on TikTok where a couple tried rescuing a dog from heat stroke and the poor thing didn't make it. I was sorta shaken by that and my nephew and I were both convinced that we couldn't just leave this kitten outside somewhere in hopes that it wanders back to its mom (which was nowhere to be found) and everything sorted itself out. So a decision was made: Bring the little guy home.
The so-called Cat Distribution System™ works in mysterious ways. Maybe this kitten was sent to us directly from Tigger himself? Maybe he knew we needed an extra little bundle of joy again to help us heal. People say it all happens when we need them the most, after all.
Welcome home, buddy.