I don’t even like cats….
I don’t care what anyone says, it’s next to impossible to not spoil your child who has a terminal disease. So here we are, with a cat. I don’t like cats. Dan doesn’t like cats. But we have one little dude, Dunky, who adores cats more than anything.
Dunky has been asking for a cat for years. So, when we found out that Caleb was going to get a service dog, I told Dunky he could get a cat. We are still waiting for Caleb’s service dog, but Dunky now was on me for this cat. We would look at websites to rescue a cat, we would go to pet stores and look at cats, we would go to cat events to look at cats, but he could never really put his finger on what cat he wanted until…….
Chocolate, aka Kitty, was Born on September 1st. This is her at 6 weeks.
he found the bougiest kitty of all time. We go on walks every day in the summer and one day there was a few very cute kitties in the yard of a house down the street. One came up to the fence so we could see her more clearly and that’s when we knew, we needed that kind of cat. So we went on a search for a breeder of a Persian Munchkin and I started some inquiries.
A few weeks later we. found ourselves driving to a breeder about an hour a way to pick out a kitty. There was a new litter of 4 kitties, 3 females and one male. Dunky knew he wanted a girl and had narrowed it down between two based on pictures but couldn’t choose until we saw them both in person. His best friend, Ellie, got to come with us to choose! Visiting other people’s homes is difficult when you are wheelchair bound, but the breeder was so kind to work with us to figure it out. When we showed up at her house it was raining like cats and more cats. So the breeder brought the two little kitties into our car so Dunky and Ellie could meet them. It was love at first sight with the runt of the litter. She was the most precious brown and white kitty that didn’t weigh more than a pound. The name came naturally and quickly when Ellie told Dunky he could name her, Chocolate.
Meanwhile Dan is insisting we are not getting a cat, not to mention he is allergic to cats. But I’m a person of my word. I wasn’t going to tell Dunky he could get a cat and not follow through! I’m so sorry Dan, but we actually are getting a cat.
Dunky woke up the next morning still thinking about the brown and white kitty, now named Chocolate, and the rest is history. That day we put a down payment on Chocolate (seriously, she’s so bougie we had to reserve her at 6 weeks) and waited for her to get strong enough that we could take her home.
We spent the coming weeks buying all the kitty things. Kitty towers, kitty food, kitty toys, kitty litter boxes, kitty scratching posts, kitty bowls, kitty blankets, kitty beds, you name it, we were buying it. We had no idea what we were doing or what the kitty needed, but we wanted to make sure that when kitty was ready to come to her new home, it was going to be amazing for her.
And it was. And it is. And the best part is it’s equally amazing for Dunky and our family.
Dunky quickly realized that Chocolate doesn’t roll off the tongue so easily so while her official name remains Chocolate, we just call her “kitty.” Kitty and Dunky have created the cutest bond. He’s perfected how to make kitty dance. Kitty watches Dunky play his iPad. Kitty and Dunky play with his blankie. Best of all Kitty gets the best snuggles as well as hugs and kisses before leaving the house.
Caleb also instantly loved Kitty. It’s been a learning curve to try to explain to them that Kitty really only wants to be held on her timeline, not his, but eventually Kitty comes around to snuggle.
It took a bit for Dan and I to warm up to Kitty. At first I felt like I had a small rodent running around my house that I didn’t know what to do with. Dan was equally unimpressed with this small animal that we had paid too much money for that he was allergic to. BUT, it didn’t take long for Kitty to grow on us. She’s sassy, playful and now the cutest little Kitty we have grown to like (love still feels too strong but maybe in time….).
Life feels too short for a typical human, but it feels exponentially shorter when you are given a time limit on life. We live everyday unsure of how many more years, months, days we have with our kids. So we do outlandish things like say yes to getting a kitty to bring joy into their lives while we have them.
