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- Jul 11, 2017
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Hi! I'm Kayla, and even though I'm the youngest in my house, I'm the one who takes care of the wonderful kitties! They are my life, and I love them so much. There's the regal but overprotective tuxedo cat Mimi, the dashing and skiddish long-haired gray Harley, and the loving but sneezy all-black Pepper.
We got Pepper as a kitten, when he ran away from his home and we found him yelling loud enough to hear over a Florida thunderstorn behind our bushes. He was cold, hungry, and he had ear mites so he was lopsided. He was tiny enough to fit in your hand! When we found where he'd come from, we found out that his owners hadn't spayed his mom, and hadn't taken good enough care of the kittens. We decided to keep Pepper, and now he's the heaviest of our kitties, happy, and not nearly as adventurous as he was as a kitten; no more sneaking out during thunderstorms!
When Pepper was a kitten, though, he was much more... energetic. He was ripping up some of our furniture because we didn't tire him out enough and he ran all over! So we decided to get him a friend. We went to Pet Rescue by Judy and fostered another kitten for him to play with. The one we got was named because her meow sounded like she was saying "me" (or so I was told... hmm... now that Inthink, that doesn't sound legit...). I LOVED this kitten. Seven-year-old me didn't understand fostering. I didn't realize we would have to give Mimi back. Fortunately, when it came time to give Mimi back, the place was filled up with cats. We had to keep Mimi for another month! Oh well, I suppose I could keep this amazing wonderful cat for another month. By the time that month was up, we all loved her so much there was no way we could give her back. So that's how we got Mimi.
This is where the timeline gets a little weird. Harley was actually hanging out near our house before we even got Pepper. The thing is, he wore a collar, so we assumed he was owned. At that time, we had an outdoor cat who we fed outside. Eventually we noticed a long-haired, grey-blue cat eating our outdoor cat's food. We couldn't stop him, but we couldn't let him take our cat's food, so we started putting out foor for him as well. Soon after, our outdoor cat died of heart issues, so we kept feeding the grey cat. It soon became apparent that he was the friendliest cat alive, despite his spiked greasy leather Harley Davidson collar. (Hint hint: how we named him.) We put up signs around the neighborhood about him.
By this point, we had Mimi and Pepper, and my parents kept saying "We have two cats! That's enough! We're not getting another." (Haha say that to my friends with five cats) After a month with no response from the signs, we decided Harley was not owned, or at the very least, not well loved. We took him in to the vet, gave him shots, got him tested. It turned out that he was FIV positive. That means that he may be at higher risk for infections, and it also meant that if he ever bit another cat, they could get infected too. We'd already seen him interact with our outside cat, and we knew he was the sweetest cat ever. We simply could not let him be put in a shelter where he's unlikely to be adopted due to his virus. So we kept him. We brought him home, and the thing we're most surprised about is that Mimi and Pepper didn't even seem surprised or upset that there was another cat there. They acted as if he'd been there all along. To this day, seven years later, Harley has never bitten a cat, and he is the most grateful and sweet cat you'll ever know.
TL;DR: We found Pepper behind some bushes, meowing his little heart out. His mom was unspayed and in bad condition, so we kept him. We fostered Mimi as a playmate to him. Had to foster an extra month; ended up adopting her. Harley was apparently abandoned by his owners. Turns out he has feline HIV; we keep him anyway because we know his sweet soul.
We got Pepper as a kitten, when he ran away from his home and we found him yelling loud enough to hear over a Florida thunderstorn behind our bushes. He was cold, hungry, and he had ear mites so he was lopsided. He was tiny enough to fit in your hand! When we found where he'd come from, we found out that his owners hadn't spayed his mom, and hadn't taken good enough care of the kittens. We decided to keep Pepper, and now he's the heaviest of our kitties, happy, and not nearly as adventurous as he was as a kitten; no more sneaking out during thunderstorms!
When Pepper was a kitten, though, he was much more... energetic. He was ripping up some of our furniture because we didn't tire him out enough and he ran all over! So we decided to get him a friend. We went to Pet Rescue by Judy and fostered another kitten for him to play with. The one we got was named because her meow sounded like she was saying "me" (or so I was told... hmm... now that Inthink, that doesn't sound legit...). I LOVED this kitten. Seven-year-old me didn't understand fostering. I didn't realize we would have to give Mimi back. Fortunately, when it came time to give Mimi back, the place was filled up with cats. We had to keep Mimi for another month! Oh well, I suppose I could keep this amazing wonderful cat for another month. By the time that month was up, we all loved her so much there was no way we could give her back. So that's how we got Mimi.
This is where the timeline gets a little weird. Harley was actually hanging out near our house before we even got Pepper. The thing is, he wore a collar, so we assumed he was owned. At that time, we had an outdoor cat who we fed outside. Eventually we noticed a long-haired, grey-blue cat eating our outdoor cat's food. We couldn't stop him, but we couldn't let him take our cat's food, so we started putting out foor for him as well. Soon after, our outdoor cat died of heart issues, so we kept feeding the grey cat. It soon became apparent that he was the friendliest cat alive, despite his spiked greasy leather Harley Davidson collar. (Hint hint: how we named him.) We put up signs around the neighborhood about him.
By this point, we had Mimi and Pepper, and my parents kept saying "We have two cats! That's enough! We're not getting another." (Haha say that to my friends with five cats) After a month with no response from the signs, we decided Harley was not owned, or at the very least, not well loved. We took him in to the vet, gave him shots, got him tested. It turned out that he was FIV positive. That means that he may be at higher risk for infections, and it also meant that if he ever bit another cat, they could get infected too. We'd already seen him interact with our outside cat, and we knew he was the sweetest cat ever. We simply could not let him be put in a shelter where he's unlikely to be adopted due to his virus. So we kept him. We brought him home, and the thing we're most surprised about is that Mimi and Pepper didn't even seem surprised or upset that there was another cat there. They acted as if he'd been there all along. To this day, seven years later, Harley has never bitten a cat, and he is the most grateful and sweet cat you'll ever know.
TL;DR: We found Pepper behind some bushes, meowing his little heart out. His mom was unspayed and in bad condition, so we kept him. We fostered Mimi as a playmate to him. Had to foster an extra month; ended up adopting her. Harley was apparently abandoned by his owners. Turns out he has feline HIV; we keep him anyway because we know his sweet soul.
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