Stripes

As my profile states, I live in a house full of boys. Besides my hubby and preschooler, we have a big, fat, lazy brown and black cat 'Moses' and a gentle, sweet and loving golden retriever 'Drake'. We adopted Moses as an 8-week old kitten from my sister's farm 6 years ago.   

Moses

 

We got Drake as an 8-week old Puppy years ago. He was born in July 2007, and he is the sweetest, gentlest dog I've ever known. That's not to say he doesn't love to romp and play and jump and be wild once in a while, but he has a loving heart and is a great snuggler. He is a 75 lb lap dog! If you sit on the floor, he will sit in your lap. He's a sweetie! We're happy with our pets. Well, Gavin wants a puppy and a kitten and a guinea pig, but Cliff and I are happy with the two that we have.

 

Drake

 

Occasionally a farm cat (or barn cat) shows up at our place from one of the neighboring farms. They don't typically stick around because we don't feed them and because Drake chases cats. This summer we had a kitten show up at our house and sit on our front steps howling to be let in. That one came from Cliff's parents' barn up the road, but someone had obviously let it into their house and loved it because it wanted IN our house. After a few days, it left.

 

Then a couple of weeks later, a different little orange and white kitten showed up at our house. At first we would see it at the edge of our "woods" or around the outskirts of our yard, but it didn't really want to be picked up. It would chase grasshoppers in our garden and then hide in the soybeans when we tried to get close to it.

 

One September day I was folding laundry while Gavin was playing outside and I heard the front door open and close, so I knew he had come in the house. I walked into the kitchen to check on him and was greeted with this surprising sight!

 

 

Yep, a barn cat... sitting on my kitchen table. A bundled up boy, a filthy dirty cat, and our playful dog who loves to chase cats, sitting quietly beside them with a big smile on his face. 

 

Oh. My. Goodness.

 

I had to take the picture with my phone and send it to my hubby, who had been unsuccessful in "catching" the cat and who was as against any more pets around our place as I was.

 

Two weeks later, Gavin and I pulled into the garage one afternoon after preschool to see this furry little orange ball curled up in the sunshine on Cliff's workbench. Oh boy! After sending the picture to Cliff's phone again, he admitted putting the old sheet there on his workbench for the kitty to sleep on! WHAT??? This coming from the guy who doesn't like cats, doesn't like our one pet cat, and doesn't want any more pets???  Yep, this little fur-ball had stolen his heart!   

 





 

There seems to be an abundance of orange and white striped kittens around our neck of the woods these days. Cliff's parents' farm has two or three of these little guys. My sister's farm just a mile and a half away had two or three. Our daycare provider's cat "Orangey" recently disappeared, so they got a "new" orange one from my sister and named it "Charlie". And now it seemed we have our own orange and white little fur-ball. Some orange Tom cat has been VERY busy this year! There are orange and white striped kittens everywhere, and they're all about the same size / age.

 

Before we knew it, Gavin was hauling this little one all around our yard. He'd climb up his playhouse ladder with it under his arm and play with it in his playhouse. He'd send it down the slide from his playhouse to the ground, and then slide down after it. He'd put it in his play barn out on our front porch. He played and played and played with this little kitten. He called it Orangey and Charlie and every other kitty name he knew. We finally decided to call it Stripes. I think it's a girl. I would have named it Milo, but Milo is kind of a boy name too. Maybe Mila... anyway, for now she is Stripes.

 

and SHE IS AN OUTDOOR CAT...

 

despite what the photos below might imply...

 



Gavin LOVES this cat. And sweetly, this cat seems to love Gavin. Our cat Moses isn't much of a lover. He wants to be in your face, but he doesn't want you to touch his back or his belly or pick him up. He tolerates Gavin and is not mean by any means, but he doesn't love Gavin back the way a boy needs his pets to love him. This little orange fluff does. It loves him. It lets Gavin carry it around by it's neck. It seeks him out when he's outside. It's just what this boy needs. Maybe sometimes the right pet needs to find YOU. 

(Never mind the chocolate all over this boy's face. He had just had a chocolate chip banana muffin.)

 



 

Gavin calls her Stripes-ies. It's cute. Stripes-ies wants to be in our house. We feed her now twice a day in our garage. Not quite as much as our big, fat Moses because we want her to keep her hunting skills keen, but enough that she's not going hungry. She and Drake get along famously. They snuggle and play together. He doesn't "tree" her the way he trees the farm cats. She's still not allowed in the house...  You can see how well that's going...

 

 

"Time to put Stripes back outside Gavin."

and Gavin gets the pouty sad face while Stripes-ies waves sadly at me. Oh goodness.

 

How long do you give us until we just adopt her fully and welcome her into our house????