Oliver

We recently made the decision that it was time for a kitten. We did our research, bought a few necessities, and started looking. I was surprised at how difficult it is to find a kitten! In the past, we had run into people with kittens who tried to talk us into taking one or more because they didn’t want more cats. At those times, though, we weren’t in the market for a new pet.

We even visited one of the people who had kittens in the past, but they don’t have any right now. We went to a veterinary hospital that we were told always had plenty of kittens, but they also don’t have any right now. We found an ad in the classified section of a paper when we were out of town, and called. One of their cats was already taken, and the other had a temporary medical issue, and won’t be available for a few weeks.

We did find some older cats, though. One was named Goose. He’s about 10 or 12 months old, and is white with some gray. We thought he was pretty nice, so we went ahead and filled out an application to adopt him. We were disappointed that we couldn’t take him home the same day, but it said it would only take about 24 hours.

Later, one of our references let us know that he had gotten a call from The Pet Adoption and LIfecare Society (PALS), the agency that handles the adoptions. That same evening, we got the call – we were approved, and could pick up our cat the next day!

The next morning, I had the day off. The kids were on spring break, so I had taken some vacation days. We got ready, and then made sure the house was safe and ready for our new pet. Finally, it was time to go! We piled into the car for the short ride. Once there, we quickly did some more paperwork, picked up a few more supplies, and headed home.

We decided to rename him Oliver. The name fit better than “Goose”.

He was a bit shy at first. From what we had been told, he was less than 3 pounds when he was found, and possibly never had a home. He looked around a bit. When he seemed a little comfortable, we showed him where to find his food, water, and litter box.

It didn’t take Oliver long to figure out that he was welcome to sit with any of us. We were on vacation, and also figured Oliver had to catch up on some human contact time, so we spent a few hours sitting on the couches and watching a movie. Oliver spent most of that time on one lap or another. He managed to visit all of us at least once.

I’m actually happy that we ended up adopting a slightly older cat. Kittens are adorable, but an adult cat seems to transition a little easier. Besides, kittens grow up quickly and aren’t kittens for long! If you’re thinking of adopting a cat, consider looking at different ages, and not just the tiny little kittens.