They Find Us

Years (decades) ago, when my son was maybe 6 or 7, a dog showed up at our house. He had thick white fur and a tag that said his name was Smokey. He sat at the fence to our back yard and refused to leave. We called the number on the tag.

"Your dog is at our house." "Yeah? So call the pound."

Well, Smokey was way too sweet to be sent back to this jerk. So we took him to the vet, got him fixed and Smokey became ours. We joked about how Smokey found us.

Fast forward more than 20 years. I wake up one morning and there's an open can of the dog's pumpkin food on the counter.

"What is this?" I ask Chip.

"Oh. There was a cat crying outside last night so I gave it some food." "Great," I said. "Now we have a cat."

An outdoor cat, given that I have three big indoor dogs - one of which killed an armadillo in the backyard last year. So no, the cat cannot come inside. It would be an unfortunate bloodbath.

Although we're paying a pest control company 80 bucks a month to trap rats under our house so this may be a win-win for us.

I bought some cat food and a small dish and started feeding her outside. I say "her," because I looked up how to sex cats on the internet and this appeared (to me) to be a girl. I wasn't 100% though, since I've never had a cat.

I made an appointment with our vet to get the kitten checked out. Here's what I learned:

Yes, she's a girl. Welcome, Luna! (A boy would've been Loki.) She's actually not a kitten - the vet estimated she's about 3 1/2 years old. She is fixed (clipped ear) but not chipped. She tested negative for feline AIDS, leukemia and intestinal worms (yay!). We assume since she's been spayed that she had her first round of vaccines, so we gave her her second round and got some heartworm preventative.

Luna is super cuddly and loving. The first day she came running up to me, rubbing up against my legs. I sat with her out on the porch that evening and she climbed right up in my lap, kneading my stomach. I guess we all just want to be loved and feel safe. That, my girl, I can provide.

The dogs have not fully accepted Luna yet. Shelby, who's been housetrained for 10 years, peed on my office carpet right in front of me the other night. Thor pooped on my bedroom carpet while I was outside with Luna. The vet gave me some tips on how to get the dogs used to her. (Start with Shelby, the alpha. Let them smell her butt. Reference George Carlin "Check my ass, dad..." joke.)

At the vet, Luna hid under the chair. He pulled her out to examine her, which freaked her out a bit. But then he sat in the chair with her and she just cuddled up on his lap. "She's a really good cat," he kept saying.

She is. She really is.