acquiring a new pet was the calmest moment of our weekend

About five years ago, the three of us got the urge to add a pet to our family. We wanted a dog, but realized that we weren’t really the best family for one. We’re gone a lot of the time and wouldn’t be able to give a dog the attention and maintenance that it needs. So we decided to get a cat. I was skeptical, because I’ve never particularly liked cats. But we adopted Greedo and he’s been a beloved member of our household ever since.

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The past couple of months, the husband and I talked about maybe getting a kitten, but were very hesitant because we didn’t want to change the household dynamics or Greedo’s wonderful personality. But on Friday, I absentmindedly followed a link to PetFinder from a friend on Twitter and started poking around at the cats up for adoption just to pass my time on my lunch break. I came across a boy kitten, only 10 weeks old, who looked like what we imagined Greedo would have looked like when he was just a wee thing.

I informed the husband that we would need to go to the Humane Society cat adoption at the PetSmart in the North Hills after work.

“Why?” he asked.

“Because that’s where the kitten is,” I said.

“What kitten?”

“Our kitten. That we’re getting. Tonight.”

The husband was resistant, sure that Greedo would be traumatized. However, when he got to hold our kitten for the first time, a grin full of defeat spread across his face.

We took him to my mother-in-law’s house first so everyone there could see him and delighted in watching this fuzzball of energy bound around the room, curious about everything and purring constantly. My mom brought the baby there after his piano lesson and I got the extremely cool experience of surprising my kid with a new pet.

When we took the kitten home, Greedo was not excited. There was some hissing and some big tails before we isolated the kitten in the bathroom per the shelter’s instructions. The husband was being all doomy and declared that they would never get along and the kitten would have to go back. The baby started crying, agreeing with the husband’s assessment. “Look, guys. They’ve only known each other five minutes. They just have to get used to each other.”

We didn’t get to play with the new kitten that much during his first few days home. Friday and Saturday nights we were out at the VIA festival, not getting home until the very wee hours of the morning and having to get up at 8:30 for soccer both days.

Saturday afternoon, I had to take a nap if I was going to make it through another night of music and another early morning soccer game, and took the kitten into the spare room with me so that he could be isolated from Greedo but not cooped up and lonely. I woke up from a delicious nap to find the kitten snuggled up against me. He felt me stir and nuzzled into my neck, tickling me a little bit and just generally melting my heart.

“Greedo is going to have to get over his hang-ups about the kitten because I’m pretty sure we just bonded,” I declared.

Once Greedo had an opportunity to watch the ridiculous antics of the kitten as he hopped sideways and zoomed on tiny legs and jumped from tall heights with little to no regard for his physical well-being, he seemed to appreciate how entertaining the kitten was and began to slowly warm up. Which is good, because I’m in love.

He’s named Florian after one of the members of Kraftwerk. Don’t you think of 1970s proto-techno German electronic music when you see kittens?

4 Responses to “acquiring a new pet was the calmest moment of our weekend”

  1. Average Jane Says:

    Congratulations on the new kitten! They’ll do fine.

  2. sweetney Says:

    OMG SO JELUS I COULD DIE ARRGH SO FUZZY CUTE GAH.

  3. Sarah Says:

    He is precious and I think it is a perfect name.

    Although to be honest, when I had kittens that looked exactly like that I thought about punk rock bass players.

    True story.

  4. Kizz Says:

    Yay kitten! So cute.

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