The Arrival of Luna Softpaws

My kids have been begging for a dog or cat, in varying turns, for forever. We had an adorable dog for a while back when Katherine was born, and life was much more stressful. Adorable, but a real pain back in the days when we couldn’t handle anyone else pooping or vomiting on the carpet, besides the babies! Eventually, we were too fed up with her barking and intestinal issues and found a wonderful home for her. So every time the question of a pet has come up, Chris and I have always clearly said, “No.” I usually threw in that I didn’t need any extra animals – since I already had five PIGS, but that was more for me than them. About 4 months ago, Katherine talked her daddy into going into Petco to look at the fish, and she came home enraptured about her fist-bump with a kitten waiting for adoption. She told me she’d never seen a “real” kitten up close, which seems ridiculously sad to me, but still, I said there was NO WAY we could handle a cat. “I mean, just look around at all this mess! We can’t have another animal in the house!” But Katherine didn’t give up – she went to the computer and printed out about 50 pictures of kittens and taped them up all over her room. Everywhere. The other girls followed suit, and we had two rooms papered in cute kittens. Katherine started cleaning up the house in the morning before we got up, trying to show us that there wasn’t too much messiness to get an animal. We threw out a lot of good excuses for her, but she didn’t give up hope. She would pay for its shots, it food, everything, and she would empty its litter box, vacuum up the shed hair daily, etc.. Oh PLEASE! No.

By Christmas, we had decided life had gotten to a point we could handle the animal thing after all, and looked and looked for a kitten, but apparently were looking in all the wrong places, since we couldn’t find what we wanted for Christmas morning. After that I dragged my feet for a while, until it was clear that Katherine just had a kitten on her brain every single day, every single night, and we broke down and told her we’d been planning to get a kitten soon. She was instantly galvanized into action – the next day I was handed a list of phone numbers with all the shelters in the area, and she was trolling Craigslist as far away as Brookhaven looking for our kitten. Ideally, I wanted a 6-week-old calico or tortoiseshell female. After her soccer game the next day, we went by Petco again to look some kittens the Madison shelter said it had there, and we found two 10-week-old black and white kittens, one male and one female. Katherine adored the female one right then and there, but I said let’s hold off a day and check around with the other shelters first. I called first thing the next morning, Tuesday, and left messages, email, etc. with all the other animal shelters in the area, and now 72 hours later, none of them have gotten back to me. Not one. Incomprehensible. Anyway, we drove to each of the Petsmarts around to see what they had, and by the time we were done, Katherine was desperate to get back to the original Petco and see if they still had the adorable black and white kitten she held the night before. They did. Katherine and Elizabeth (the others were at home) immediately decided this was their cat. Mercifully, the all-black male had already been adopted that day, but not this one. Mercifully for me, that is, since I was feeling very guilty about taking the little guy’s sister away and not him as well. So, trying to stomp down the voice of reason that was screaming, “NO! NO! NO!” I filled out some fairly inane adoption forms (“Where do you intend to keep the litter box? My answer, “Not sure.” “Why are you adopting a cat?” “Because I want one.”) and grabbed some kitten food and kitty litter and left with two of the happiest children on the planet! People even commented as we left the store on how happy those girls were. In short order we were home and surprised the others with our new treasure. Ecstasy and rapture ensued. Even Daniel was beyond thrilled. Happiness lasted about 30 seconds, then the discussions about names began. The kitten had been called “Kissy” by the shelter, but we were at least in agreement that had to go. I suggested “Kitsy Kat” (after my first cat), but Daniel really wanted something more exotic, like “Ember.” Katherine and Elizabeth had their hearts set on “Midnight Moon,” since she was dark and light. I didn’t tell them that the name “Midnight” always makes me remember the last time I saw my cat of the same name – after Mom accidentally rolled the car over him as he slept under the tire. Not pretty. I suggested that they change “Moon” to “Luna” and we had the beginnings of a consensus. Luna would’ve stuck without any further ado had we not realized that this kitten looks EXACTLY like the “star” of the recent “Puss in Boots” movie – Kitty Softpaws. More discussion (some might call it “bickering”), and we wound up with the final result of “Luna Softpaws.” Caroline still persists in calling her Kitty, but as we keep calling her Luna, I think she’ll switch over without realizing it. The first night we let her sleep with us (since she really didn’t want to be alone) until she decided she needed some attention and kept butting into our faces around 2am. I carried her upstairs to Katherine and closed the door. Ahh, if only I’d had a nanny like that when I had newborn kiddos… I knew Katherine wouldn’t mind staying awake all night! She mostly did yet was extremely happy. Here’s Elizabeth with her best friend Kate, whose hair is indistinguishable from Rachel’s. –>

Two days later, I can tell you that we really lucked out. This cat is a dream. She’s perfectly litter-trained, calm, friendly, playful, and most importantly – tolerant. She’s gentle when she play-fights, relaxes as Caroline totes her like a sack of potatoes over her shoulder, and purrs loudly for anyone who looks hard at her. She hasn’t really decided where she wants to sleep yet, just wanders around between the kids’ bedrooms looking for attention between her night-time naps. Her only difficulties are fears of the outdoors and dogs. We put her in a harness and leash to take her outside, because I’m terrified she’ll disappear, and it’s a good thing we did since her only instinct when outside is to hide, and quickly! Poor baby. Well, she was found outside the Exxon station in Madison, so she apparently had some good scares in the great outside. Inside, she’s serenely at peace, so that works for us. We’ve started some exposure training with the dog next door, but I think we have a long way to go there… The only things this kitten truly cannot have, she does not seem to want – privacy and solitude. I think we’re going to get along brilliantly!

All other news is but a dim shadow beside the happy glow of Luna’s presence, but February is shaping up to be a great month. Caroline proudly, oh so proudly, pulled out her own front tooth and now has the goofiest gap-toothed smile ever, or at least since Rachel lost hers. It amuses me every time I see it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Madison library and the incomparable Miss Lizzie offered a two-day stop-motion animation workshop this week, and Daniel and Katherine were the only ones to sign up, so they had a wonderful time with the full attention of two adults helping them and praising their ideas. I’ll post the result on here once it’s polished and released by Miss Lizzie.

Katherine enjoyed indoor soccer again this year, and now she and Caroline begin spring soccer games this week. I’d like for someone to explain to me exactly how they get away with calling it “spring” soccer. The season began February 2nd, and is over March 4th. In truth, they should call it dead-of-winter soccer, but probably wouldn’t get anybody to sign up. Although with the warm winter we’ve had so far – Katherine went to practice on Friday in shorts and short sleeves again – it hasn’t been so bad!

Busy weekend – more updates to come!