If you read my post from last week, you might have seen in the last paragraph that I announced that I had adopted a cat. This was both a spontaneous and non-spontaneous adoption. It was spontaneous in that I wasn't sure if I was ready to adopt and hadn't fully prepared myself to do so. Non-spontaneous in that I had started looking into having another cat enter my life since January. I had thought about fostering, becoming a pet sitter, or volunteering with a shelter.
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| She knows she's pretty. |
I knew that I would eventually become attached to any fur baby that came into my life, so I figured adoption would be the best for all parties.
If you've been reading my blog for a while now, you'd know that this isn't my first cat. My first cat, Karma Lynn, passed away last August. She had been living with my full time for five years - starting the summer COVID-19 was in full swing. Before that, she had been living with my mom and her dogs.
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| Karma Lynn |
Karma Lynn, came to stay with for a weekend in 2008 and never left. We didn't so much "pick her" as she was a tiny little baby who needed love and my family was so excited to provide it. It also helped that our dog, Gertrude (a German Shepard Border Collie mix), decided that she wanted to mother the teeny tiny abandoned kitten with a hurt paw. Gertrude sadly passed away in 2019.
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| Gertrude |
Unlike Karma Lynn, Gertrude had been adopted after my parents did a bunch of research on Border Collies. Our first family dog, Lafayette, was a Cocker Spaniel English Setter mix. He had also been adopted at a rescue event at a local pet store. We had gotten him when he was two and well past the puppy stage. He had some quirks, but my parents loved how protective he was towards me and my sibling. Sadly he passed away very young (he had cancer at the age of six). My parents had agreed that we'd get a puppy after Lafayette and thought that a Border Collie would be a good bread for our family.
Initially, we went to see a different Border Collie puppy. I don't remember the dog's name, though I do recall that the puppy was a boy. However, one of my parents spotted Gertrude and decided that she was perfect for our family. It probably helped that puppy Gertrude fell asleep in my dad's hand while we were bonding with her and it was beyond adorable.
Long story short, I was used to adopting pets. Karma (and to a lesser extent my mom's Husky Millie) was a product of the cat distribution system (also known as the CDS). This is when the universe decides that a person or family needs a cat and one shows up that becomes that person or family's cat.
I could have left it up to the CDS again. There are a number of cats who run around the neighborhood and it's unclear home many of them have permanent homes. However, I also have specific needs when it comes to cats.
Specifically, I'm super allergic to short hair cats and mildly allergic to long haired cats. Naturally, if I wanted another cat, it would have to be long haired.
I was also a bit attached to Karma Lynn's fur coat. She was what was known as having a prominent tortoiseshell coat. These cats are known as torties. Technically with the white splotch on Karma's chest, she was more of a mix between a calico and tortoiseshell - otherwise known as torticos. So I was keeping my eye out for a long haired tortie up for adoption.
This is a rarer combination that some of you might realize. Tortoiseshell coats are already fairly uncommon, but combined with a long haired cat (which make up 10% of the cat population), I was looking for a very small needle in a very large haystack.
That was until a family friend who had started a rescue mentioned that another rescue had recently gotten a long haired tortie in. The friend gave me the contact information for the rescue and I hesitated.
Was I ready for a new cat?
The trauma of losing Karma is still fresh. I know some people can get new pets fairly soon after a loss, but I wasn't sure if I was ready.
The truth is, I missed having a cuddle buddy. I missed playing and laughing with a furry friend. I missed having a companion to look after (no I don't need a significant other, grown people should be able to take care of themselves).
A few days later, I decided to ask about the rescued cat.
However, the long haired tortie wasn't the cat I ended up taking home.
While I was at the rescue, I met the cat I was curious about. She was tiny and had been bullied by the bigger cats. She was cute and sweet, but we didn't fully connect and she was a lot young than I was hoping to adopt. The rescuer mentioned that she had two other long haired cats that I could meet. One was an eight year old boy, the other was a one or two year old girl.
The long haired boy was sweet and super cuddly. I wouldn't have minded him, but he seemed really happy with his rescuer.
The girl, however, immediately ran up to me and demanded my full attention. Her foster name was Summer and she had a light brindle back with white legs and stomach. She wasn't a tortie, but she was very close to one. She started batting the other cats away from me - pretty much saying that I was her human.
I had been chosen and Summer was coming home with me.
I waited a week so that I could get my house in order and get through a stressful week at work. In that time, I thought up a name for my new feline companion. Summer was a nice name, but she looked like a regal lady and I wanted to give her a name worthy of her look. Before meeting her, I was toying with the name Pawlette as a fun pun. This cat was not a Pawlette.
I then went through a few more regal sounding names like Cordelia, Aurora, and Artemisia. I even thought of names that might incorporate her foster name - like Lady Summerwind.
Then I remembered my favorite character from one of my favorite books. Wilhelmina Harker, nee Murry, is an amazing character in Dracula the book. If there was a name for this cat it was Wilhelmina. Summer became her middle name.
I brought her home last Saturday and it's been an adjustment. I'm lucky that I get to work from home whenever I want. So I spent the last week home with her - I also spent a small fortune on cat trees, food, treats, and other supplies. We did end up going to the vet in the middle of the week and I found out she has a double ear infection, but otherwise she seems very happy.
I wasn't expecting to adopt the cat that I did - especially once I found out she was just over a year old. However, I do think I made the right choice. I'm already happily changing my life (for the better) to meet Willa's needs (I'm calling her Willa instead of Mina for short).
So please give a warm welcome to Wilhelmina Summer. She's already captured my heart.
Until next week.
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