A new family member

Well, something came over me a couple days before Christmas; call it the Christmas spirit, but I decided last minute to get my haircut as I was desperately overdue! This is how desperate I was; I ventured into CostCutters; yup, desperate times call for desperate measures. Anyway, it was the 23rd and as I figured many people may be getting the last minute cuts, I got their early; about 15 minutes early. So, I had time to kill and decided, eh, I'll poke around PetSmart. Why? I don't know, I don't even have a pet right now, but it was something to do. Well, I'm poking around and there I see cats for adoption from the Humane Society; they were sooo cute! So, I go back to get my haircut and I can't stop thinking about them. I call Kevin and say, OMG, I almost got a cat; he tells me I"m dangerous out on my own shopping, but does admit, about as dangerous as him in Lowe's or Home Depot :) I get my haircut and proceed back in to check them out a bit more and I see my friend Jen; a cat AND dog lover heading to her car. I call her over and tell her my thoughts and she accompanied me back inside; clearly to be a good? ;) influence. I ask to see the cats and the salesperson says, "are you considering adoption?" in a bit of a tone I might add. I instinctively say yes; what has come over me? Consider this, I've never owned a cat; I grew up with dogs AND I'm allergic to them!

Well, we get brought into this room and they bring out 2 cats for me to play with; Tala (1-2 years old) and Petunia (8 weeks old). I play with both and enjoy both. I fill out an application for adoption; seriously! What am I doing? I fill out the form and head home shaking my head to tell Kevin. Christmas Eve day, Autumn and I head out to Starbuck's. After getting my fix, I say, hey, do you want to see the cute cats that I played with yesterday. Of course she's interested! We go in and after watching them, I tell her that I put in for adoption; I think she almost hit the floor! I asked her if she'd like to play with them and she was definitely in. She played with both, though definitely there was more comfort (on both her and the cats' ends) with Petunia, the little one. As we're leaving, I call Kevin to tell him and he says, the Human Society just called, the application was approved (even with the little white lie answer to "Does anyone have allergies?"; "Put no" Jen said, "Its what Kristen did" :) Kevin tells me the lady needs to know by 2pm which cat we definitely want to consider. We go home, have lunch, get Kevin and Abbie and head BACK OUT to Petsmart to have them play with her. They tell us they're much too busy. Kevin and Abbie watch them both and we decide as a family; definitely Petunia! I call the Humane Society from the car and tell them Petunia and set up an appointment for Sunday at 10am to go over everything; OMG I'm adopting a cat?! The girls are crazy excited, so I guess its worth it. Friday morning I buy generic Zyrtec and start taking it Saturday morning.

Sunday morning we head out to PetSmart. The rep says, you must be Petunia's new family. Somehow the finality of that freaked me out a bit, but I said, yup. Next thing I know, I'm reviewing medical history, promising to spay and writing out a check for $85 thank you! :) The holiday special however, allowed for PetSmart to donate $10 to the Humane Society too from my adoption; double plus :)

Then comes the set-up shopping. Isn't it true about any new venture? You know you're supposed to consider all the costs, but never really add it up until its done; Another $175 later and I'm loading a kitten, bed, carrier, litter box, litter, dishes, mat, cat food, toys and a collar into my minivan; OY! Then its home to set up everything.

The first day we hold Petunia a bit and pet her, but she skimpers off most of the time. My allergies bother me slightly; I wheeze a teeny bit Sunday night and that's it. Monday she becomes more adventurous; then comes the offering of wet cat food (the vet informed me today that I just created a high end addiction!) and she went ballistic. Now apparently, we're all best friends! Hey, I guess if someone fed me high end food every day I might get pretty friendly too! :) Now she's becoming more comfortable and letting Autumn and Kevin pet her. I suppose she'd let me too, but I'm trying hard not to do it so much, which brings me to the amazing part...

I kind of like this cat.

Yup, me, the person who never had a cat, has had full dlown allergy attacks with them, is really liking this cat; and amazingly, allergies are holding down pretty well.

I just called her Petunia Calegari; in all seriousness; in the same way as my girls! We're getting a new tv too and Kevin was removing the old one and repainting and she went over to the wires and paint to poke around and I had to say, "Petunia Calegari!".

Who knew?