Many, many years ago, around of this time of year, and pretty much out of nowhere, Mr. Man said to me, “Do you know what you need? You need a kitten.” I was a little surprised. I did? I hadn’t really been thinking about pets. It had been a long, long time since I had a cat. But as I thought about it, I realized that he was right, I DID need a kitten!
So, Mr. Man embarked on a quest to bring me a kitten for Christmas. His first stop was a cat rescue place somewhere in Orange County. He was so upset when he got home, the lady there wouldn’t even TELL him if they had any kittens. They “prefer if you and your fiancé come in together to meet our cats.” The quest continued. One thing we discovered was that December was pretty much the only month of the year that wasn’t “kitten season.”
Finally, we found a nice cat rescue lady who had kittens and would let him come to meet them. He went to the woman’s house; she went to get the kittens and came back with her arms full. He picked up this one sweet little brown tabby who was just staring at him, not squirming or crying like the others and the kitten immediately Velcro-ed herself to him. Since she had attached herself to him, he decided that he may as well take her home. Done deal.
This kitten was a feral rescue, so she hadn’t been socialized to people as a little baby. Even though she was only nine weeks old, the rescue folks had her fixed because they weren’t sure if she would have to be released into a feral cat colony. He got instructions on keeping her confined because there was a good chance that she would just hide from us and we would never see her again. Mr. Man brought her home and set up a kitten room in the bathroom where the only place that she could “hide” from us was behind the toilet (of course we already had all the supplies, you know that I went shopping as soon as we decided that we were doing this). And then I get a call at work. “You aren’t going to believe it! I got you the smartest kitten ever! She went straight to her box and used it!” He was an instant fan.
When I would go into the bathroom to get her and she would hide behind the toilet and cry and purr simultaneously. I would grab her and we would go play and snuggle in the other room. She had perfect tabby markings, her stripes were well defined and symmetrical, and she was very photogenic.
Mr. Man and I were loving on her and trying to decide what her name would be. I suggested maybe something starting with “M” since she had a big “M” on her forehead. “EMMA!” Um, that doesn’t start with “M”, but hey, why not! And that was how our first kitten became known as Emma.
After a few weeks, we started letting her roam the house a bit at a time. She liked to play and hang out with us and was very loveable. She even started sleeping in the bed with us. One night I woke up and I couldn’t move. For a split second, I thought that I may have had a stroke! No. I had a kitten sleeping on my head who had draped herself across my neck. She did not appreciate being disturbed but I sure was relieved that once she was relocated I was no longer paralyzed.
Emma was our only kitty for several years. I’ll tell you about Clementine another day,but suffice it to say, Emma did not love living in a two-cat home. Even though she was older, she outlived Clementine and had the opportunity to be the only cat that she always wanted to be, at least at the end of her life.
That is such a sweet story. I am glad to hear it today. My Mr. Cat is out roaming the neighborhood these days but he is good about coming home……..not necessarily when called but always pretty soon.
Sweet Emma, sweet story. They make us smile even when they’re gone. They’ll always be with us ❤️