A Tail of Two Kitties: An ASPCA Adoption Story
As Told By: Brandon P. Jenkins
It was a cold day in January. My spouse and I had just moved home at my parents begging, only to be disowned shortly after. They had planned to get me home, and demand an ultimatum, my family, or my boyfriend. It wasn’t a hard choice. Still, we barely had enough to get an apartment, and were now in an area with no other relationships or support. We both worked, doubles, triples, any chance we had to pick up extra shifts as bank tellers, we took. After a few weeks, we were both feeling the overwhelming stress. My spouse grew up in a house with no less than 5 cats at any given time. So one weekend we both had off, I surprised them with a trip to the ASPCA.
There weren’t many kitties there, only a few older looking fuzzballs. All were still cute, and looking for love, but one really stood out. The sign called him “Kingsley”, but aside from his regal heterochromia, nothing about him seemed king-like. He was running in circles in the tiny cage, chirping and rawring. My spouse was smitten. The clerk took him out and handed him to us, where he promptly climbed onto my shoulders and started purring, a trait he continues today.
We paid, signed, and took him home. Over the course of the first few months with him, we learned that his default mode was wild, tearing up anything he could, yelling at all hours of the night. We changed his name to Yeti at a work friend's suggestion the first weekend we brought him home. It was an app name for our wild and crazy cat. We were so busy working just to survive after we got him, and felt terrible we couldn’t give more attention to our wild child. But luckily, a new friend would soon be falling into our laps. Literally.
Around August, we received a call from my spouse's oldest sister. She had a box of two kittens she had scooped off the side of the road out in the country where she lived. Their mom had been hit by a car, and the babies were toddling in and out of the road when she found them.
Our finances after working so much were finally at a liveable level, and adding another mouth to feed wasn’t ideal, but we knew Yeti needed a full time fur friend. I drove up to see the kittens to see if either one wanted to join our family.
I’ve never been a cat person, I grew up with lizards, but I loved Yeti like my own. At my future in-laws’ house, she paraded out a small cardboard box with two tiny kittens. They seemed like they were barely old enough to walk, and would need help eating and pooping. Hoo-ray! One was bright orange, my second favorite color. The other was gray with white patches. Sat down cross-legged in front of the towel the babies were now laying on. Before I even reached out to pat their heads, the gray and white one was barreling towards me at max toddle speed. She curled into my lap, and went to sleep. Looks like she chose me.
I took her home, and we kept her in the bathroom for a week to get her scent in the apartment. As she grew, so did her rambunctiousness. A perfect match for Yeti’s energy. With her cloud markings, and bird chirpings, we named her “Gully,” like a seagull as a placeholder name. We never could choose a more fitting one. Over the years, Gully and Yeti have gotten into all sorts of (mis)adventures. The biggest came when we had our kids. After years of attacking each other, the occasional tail pull and sloppy drool kiss was the perfect way to be told that their new hairless siblings loved them a whole lot. It’s been over 10 years since we first brought Yeti and Gully into our lives, and I can’t wait to spend some more!
About Brandon P. Jenkins
Hire Brandon as a voice actor by getting in touch online.
Website: brandonpjenkinsvo.com
Twitter: @bpjenkin123088
MEOWTASTIC!
We at Lucky Pineapple Films love cats. We love them so much, we have our own cat themed store, The Cattiest Cat Shop. To celebrate our love of cats, we invited people to share their own cat stories. When we moved the website over to a new shop, we didn’t want to lose them. Voila! Here the amazing cat stories are forever preserved on the Lucky Pineapple Films website.
