Gametes In Love

We brought Zoe home yesterday. I’ve been too nervous to talk about it too much, because I was worried I’d jinx it and something would fall through. She was ready for us to take her home on Monday night, but they called too late for me to pick her up. I also wanted to stay home with her a few days while she acclimates, but between evening classes, kid activities, relatives in town, etc. it just wasn’t practical to get her any sooner than yesterday. I was worried I’d walk into the rescue only to be told that there was a mistake and someone else adopted her. Paranoid, I know.

I’ll take a moment here to acknowledge that adopting had been a much more stressful and time consuming experience than I imagined. Or it is, if you have criteria around the pet you want to adopt. We wanted another Maine Coon, that would do well with our kids, be indoors only, not be black (S’ request) or red (mine – just don’t want to be that close to Neko resemblance), and be a young kitten. Well, the kitten part was ruled out right away. Most shelters wanted to adopt kittens in pairs (or to a home with another cat). I’m not opposed to two cats. Neither is S, but I wasn’t ready to bring two home right away. Just the thought of it stressed me out. So then we were looking for a cat between 1-2 years of age. I was scouring petfinder multiple times a day, ready to call whichever post came up that met our criteria. I did two pet fairs, with an hour drive to each last week-end too. It’s just a lot of work. We weren’t in a rush, but waiting for the right furball was a lot more involved than I thought, and I couldn’t do the driving thing EVERY week-end. So we started making compromises. I guess what went was the age request. Zoe is listed as 6.5 (although our vet is thinking closer to 4). Definitely FAR older than I thought if be adopting, but is super loving and extra sweet with the boys.

Watching the boys interact with her has been really neat. She’s only been with us since yesterday afternoon, but when she comes out of her hiding mode, she is very adventurous, and a lap cat. She did circles between me and each kid to make sure she got some love from everyone, she’s not afraid to ask for it.

S2 is talking about nothing else since she’s been with us. He said ‘My titty’ (I refer you back to the k/t replacement)’ to which I had to remind her that she is ALL of ours. He wants to pet her and pick her up, and have her sit next only to him. G is a bit more reserved, but he was pretty into her too. He asked that she sleep on his bed. What I’m doing true injustice on being able to explain is how their faces are reflecting their joy over this. S2 is full of giddi-ness. G just has his reserved smile. It makes my heart happy that she’s bringing this to us, and I hope we can make her happy too.

I’ve been nervous about her being the right fit for us. I’m looking for signs here, and I’ve manufacture a couple:
1) her birthday is 8/5, which is the date S and I got married.
2) S requested her name be Zoe. Zoe was one of the names we were saving if we ever had a girl, but it also means ‘life’. I’m hoping this means a healthy kitty for a long time.

I don’t have great photos of her yet. She’s either hiding behind our bed (and my cameras ISO sensitivity is good but not THAT good) or when she’s out, she’s quickly exploring and wants to be loved, which makes it very difficult to get a good kitty pose. So here are a couple, and a video of S2 enjoying his sister after she climbed into my bed to sit next to him.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/35tzV73C1l4]

So far, she’s a keeper 🙂

S and G have discovered a new place to ride their bikes. It’s local, it’s really neat, a little secluded, and the boys like it. The only minus is that it’s on the beach, so all the ground is literally crushed up sea shells, which makes spills unpleasant. G can actually attest to that. On this particular adventure, we kicked off by asking if he wanted to wear his knee and elbow pads. He refused, and not 3 minutes later received a big fat sea-shell sand scrape on the elbow of his arm. After awhile of his friends riding, though, he came around to show ’em how it’s done.

This was s2’s first visit to this place too. He did pretty great!

While G was lamenting his wounded arm he watched the RC planes fly over head. We got some nice swoops. I wish I had a good photo 🙂

The few moments of non-foggy skies