Well, as most of you know, our beloved Duchess died just over a week ago. It completely broke my heart. I still have moments of profound sadness. Not just over the loss of a beloved pet, but just the whole, incomprehensible idea of death. I know that we will be with Duchess again. President McKay said that he didn’t want to be in any heaven that he couldn’t have his horse. So, hands down, he is my favorite prophet!!
Saturday morning I was out running errands for Girls Camp and found myself near Petco. I decided just to run in and look at the kitties. I know, bad idea to start with! But, guess what. They had the cutest kitty, named Mutt. I held him for a while and then told the guy I would be back with my family and dog.
Actually, Saturday was a crazy day for us with Activity Days for Kat, baseball for Luke and a party later in the evening for Ali. I knew the only real time to go look at Mutt was right after Kat left for Activity Days. So, got Kat out the door, loaded the rest of the family and the dog up in the van and went off to meet our potential new family member.
We arrived at Petco and the kids went straight to Mutt. Shu Fu was sure he was going to be fed to the crickets and walked with his tail between his legs the whole time. I swear, that dog is definitely not a guard dog!! They got Mutt for us and took us to the break room so Shu Fu and Mutt could meet. Everything depended on that first meeting. We decided to jump right into it. We placed them both together in the center of the room. And what do you know…they acted like they had known each other FOREVER. They smelled each other, rubbed up against each other and walked around the room together. It only took a few minutes after that to decide Mutt was meant for us.
The guy helping us was very nice. He got a cardboard pet box and proceed to try to put it together. Well, he actually gave up and went out to the floor to get a box that was already put together. He came back, picked up Mutt and tried to put him in the box that he gave up on. I told him that I thought that was the unfinished box, and he didn’t listen/hear. He kept trying to get him in the box. Then Luke told him he was putting him in the wrong box. Didn’t hear/listen. Finally, he got Mutt in the box and lifted it up. Of course, Mutt fell out the bottom! Luke loudly told the guy, “I told you it was the wrong box.” Too funny. Well, while I filled out the adoption papers, Chris took Mutt to get his nails trimmed. We are definitely declawing people and will get him declawed pretty soon.
Duchess HATED the car. But Mutt didn’t cry at all on the way home. Good Kitty. But, we still miss you Duchess!
When we got home, we put him in the bathroom as that is where his litter and food are. We gave him a few kitty toys and he seemed to be in heaven. He loved to chase his toys around the bathtub. Even when we left the bathroom door open, he just stayed in there. I think the bathroom seemed like a palace compared to his cage.
We realized Kat would be returning soon and that we needed to figure out a way to surprise her. So, we closed the bathroom door and watched for Kat on the balcony. When she got home, I told her to go wash her hands in the bathroom. We all followed closely behind. I totally expected a scream from her, but she was speechless. When she saw the kitty, she just stood there pointing at it. I am pretty sure the kitty was thinking, “What, another one??”
We quickly realized that “Mutt” would never do for a name. After many ideas, we settled on Oliver. We originally arrived at the name based on the Disney movie, Oliver and Co., but then we decided he was more like Oliver Twist. But, upon completing the research for this blog, I realized that both Olivers are actually the same character! Shows how much I know, I never watched Oliver and Comany!!
Unfortunately Oliver smelled horrible and was shedding like a mad-man. So, it was soon decided that he needed a bath. I was a little worried about bathing a kitty, but remembered that Dana bathed her cat all the time. And whatever Dana can do, I can do!!! He was actually pretty darn good for his bath taking into consideration that he is a cat and cats hate water!!! You could tell he wasn’t too thrilled, but he endured it.
I have learned this from reading Oliver’s file….he is 10 months old. In January, he was picked up by animal control in West Valley. He was there until Summit County Friends of Animal rescued him. They had him fixed and gave him his shots. Sometime after that, he was moved to Petco to try to find him his “forever family.” So, all in all, he has spent 50% of his life in a shelter. Poor Oliver. I think we named him well.
From living with Oliver for 24 hours I have learned this….he is so happy to have a family he can hardly stand it. He tolerates the kids hauling him around. He, however, was eternally grateful for church today. He said that he really needed that 3 hour break! Oliver is deathly afraid of ceiling fans. I have racked my brain trying to figure that one out, but I got nothin’. How can a cat, from a shelter, develop a fear of ceiling fans I ask you?? It is hilarious to watch him get out of a room with a ceiling fan. Even if he knows there is one in the room, that isn’t going, he is pretty untrusting of it. Who knows? Oliver loves to play. He plays with the kids for hours on end. But, he really, really, really wants to go outside. He sits at the door and cries. He wants to chase birds SO badly. But, we are keeping him in for a couple of weeks.
Tonight he made his way into the fireplace. In the beginning it was cute. But, then he decided to try to climb UP the fireplace and I barely saved him from falling down into the basement fireplace. Silly cat. Tonight he also walked onto the middle of our Risk game and tried to take the armies off.
All in all, we love Oliver already but miss Duchess still. I am glad they are very different cats. It will be easy to see them as two different kitties.
Oliver….consider yourself at home!!!!
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