Teh Storee ov Mai Kitteh a Valentinez Dae Storeh

^_^


Last year, it was February 13th (it was a Wednesday I believe, or maybe it was Thursday? I think it was Wednesday), a week after I had saved a local cat from being stuck on my roof. The neighbor cat had a family already (in fact, several), so we decided to go rescue a kitteh that had no family. We walked into petsmart and saw this face:



Actually, what we saw was too sad for me to take a picture - it was that face, curled up in the corner of a cage

All other kittehs were lookin at us, but she was in a corner, hiding from the world outside the cage

Her name was Sunshine, and she wanted a home.

So we said - "Nobody wants that kitteh, we reskyus her!"

I am sorry I cannot resist SNORT speek when talkin' 'bout my Sunshine ^_^


So, nobody was there! We could not rescue her


We had to wait.


We came back on Saturday, the 16th. We walked in and there was Judy, the woman who runs Recycled Critter Rescue at PetSmart. She's an awesome lady. We start talking about Sunshine, and lo and behold, we find out she had been in there for 3 months.

3 MONTHS!

To top it off, you know why she was put in prison for 3 months?! SHE HAD KITTENS!!! Her only crime. She had kittens at the college years of just over 2. (I just found out that 2 years old is equal to 24 human years for kittehs - I always thought they were teenagers at that age...)

Imagine being a College Aged mother, 24 years old. You have triplets, then because of this, you are sentenced without trial to jail for 1 year. To top it off, you're forced to watch them give each of your babies away to a complete stranger before they reach junior high.



So we said "That iz sad! We rezkyues her!"

So they take the kittehs out of their jail, because people come. We have to fill out an application, and we talk about our past animal friends. Mom runs out to the car to get her money, while I go around the store buying items.

Sunshine, meanwhile, looks like this:



I call it "The Yard" - you know, as in a Prison Yard. She looks so tired and her spirit looks broken. Who wouldn't feel that way after being sent to jail for unknown sentence? We also find out she's 2 and 1/2 years old (30 in human years) - so that puts her birthday sometime near June.


We come back and pay for Sunshine. She still thinks that one other kitteh is going home and her life is destined to be behind bars. She doesn't even look at us, she keeps her eyes inside the glass at all times, and keeps to herself. Other kittehs play with each other, but Sunshine does not. She is depressed

It makes me sad thinking about how she looked and acted even today


But enough of that! Something happens, and Sunshine didn't know what it was - she was being lifted and put into the box she saw so many other kittehs put into.

She cries and meows as we get into the car, and her mews become frantic - like a kitten. So I partially open the box and give her pets and luvins. She doesn't know what's going on but she understands that much.

We arrive home as she is even more frantic, and I brought her inside the house, and opened the box.

She stayed in the box for nearly a half hour, then she left, and explored! Every corner, every stair, every rug, she sniffed them all! Periodically she would walk up to us and give an inquisitive meow, wanting us to answer whatever question she asked. I don't speak cat, but I know when they ask a question. All I did was give her some pets and she would go back to inspection duty.

Finally, it was time for late night t.v. and sunshine came over to spend some time with us. Mom, Sunshine and I just watched t.v. (well, Sunshine got luvins we watched t.v.). No more frantic meows

We learned some things about her too -


* She had an infection or something in her right eye. We fixed it up right away. She didn't like the eyedrops, but she actually realized that the Eyedrops made it better. So even though she would shake her head when I used them, she tried to be brave and lifted her eyes up just for me to put the drops in. I managed to treat her 3 days in a row before she said "Enough! My eye is better!" (well she acted like that's what she said).


* She loved her new toys we got for her, this was the first - I call it her little hunter's blind. When I went to take the picture, she specifically hugged it with her paw and meowed at me. At first I thought it was her just saying hello, but then I noticed she makes the same motions and meows for any item we give to her. She was thanking us!
When we play chase the butterfly (it's a folded up piece of paper tied in the center to a string, and flayed out at the edges), she will use the blind as a tank. She pushes and roles the tank forward from inside in order to capture and kill the target without seeing her. At first I thought she'd hate the color scheme, because there is no pink or green, but to my surprise, she'd have it no other way!


* This is her scratching post - we gave it to her and she looked at it then meowed at us. I patted it and then "scratched it" then motioned to sunshine and gave her pets. She picked up real fast. For about two weeks after, she'd walk up to us, meow, then walk away, stop and turn to make sure we were following. Then she'd lead us to her scratching board, flop down, hug it, then meow, and pull it close to her - only one thing to explain that: she was thanking us. "Look what I got! Ty!"
Do you see that hair thingy behind her? I have a story with that - she loves hair thingies. She will pull and snap them. But, that's not all. We discovered she has FAVORITE COLORS! Any Hair Thingy with Pink on it she will choose over any hair thingy any other color.
To top it off, she will separate them by color. Blues will go to the side or otherwise discarded. Pinks will go to her favorite spot in that room. Blue with pink bands will be near the pinks but separate from them. She picks them up and moves them. She only does this when we have too many to count (such as 8 in the same spot). If there are fewer than that, she'll just leave them be.
She also has favorite "blankets", whether they are mom's robes or actual blankets. If there is no tactile difference between the fabrics, she will choose the Pinkest of the fabrics. She doesn't really like blue. However, she does like a light electric/neon green. Yes, it is the colors to which she's attracted. Same with clothes. We tested this out many times. I wonder if she sees the same colors we see or if they are fantastically different!


* This is her friend, she sleeps with him sometimes, but not always. She will sometimes move him to wherever she wants to lay down. It's very cute because she will hug him real tight if she decides to sleep with him. I've never known a kitteh to do that


When it was time to go to sleep, Sunshine slept with my mom on her bed. The next night, she slept with me. The first thing I noticed was nightmares.

She'd whimper and cry out in her sleep while moving frantically. When I put my hand on her, she'd wake up with a start and meow and look around, I'd pet her and she'd grab my hand with her paw, extend her claws and pull it close. Obviously I didn't want to get scratched, so I moved my hand to where she patted it down. She then slept on my arm.

It is true.

She had horrific nightmares for the first couple of months. It was just awful. It made me so sad, but, I knew that when I touched her, she'd grab my hand and they would stop.

There was also a black and white neighborcat that was using our back yard as a place to sleep (or what you can call our back yard). The kitty gave off some really violent and deep rumbling meows to Sunshine. I know he or she was calling Sunshine names and threatening her. One night, Sunshine had a nightmare, I patted her, and she Looked at me, Meowed, then perked her head up, and bounded as fast as she could to the Kitchen. She rushed to the back door and inspected it, then rushed to the kitchen window and back.

She was on a mission. The only possible explanation I can have is she had a nightmare about that cat coming through the back door, it was an evening after the black and white cat made nasty sounds through the window and door. It took me about 5 minutes to calm Sunshine down, and another 15 to bring her out of the kitchen. She was a Kitteh on a MISSION in the KITCHEN!

Soon, sure enough, her nightmares became few and far between. They also weren't as noisy or violent. She rarely has them now, but she still sleeps with me. I'm "her boy". I don't know if that means she thinks we're an item, or if we're soulmates, but whatever it is, I'm hers. When I left to Connecticut after months of preparing my patent for its debut (something Mr. Maulkin seems to believe I lied about), she freaked out. She blamed mom, apparently thinking mom kicked me out of the house. Oh, she gave mom the cold shoulder. She'd go to my room and my bed, refuse to play with mom, and just watched and waited for me to come home.

6 days = an eternity in cat years (ok 6 days is more like 1 month).

I came home and Sunshine gave me the Business. It was the most demanding MEOW I've ever heard from her. The most demanding. I had to beg and luv her up for a half hour before she forgave me. Good thing she was in a forgiving mood ;D Well, we both knew she couldn't stay angry for forever.

Oh one last thing - we knew when we got her she was 2 1/2. That put her birthday in the summer (an unknown date of which to be sure). Being that she was named Sunshine, we decided to celebrate it on the Summer Solstice. It was an appropriate date to give her extra luvins.

This is my Valentine's Day story! I hope it inspires you to rescue a kitteh or a puppeh if you have extra room in your home ^_^