I’ve been a longtime lurker on this subreddit and have cried many times reading the rainbow bridge tributes to many others beautiful kitties. I thought I would share this short story of the start of our journey to also pay tribute to the countless beginnings with our furry friends. This is ours.

My husband took this first picture last night while he was driving to pick up our teenager from her prom mani/pedi appointment. While almost to his destination he called and told me he that there was this black kitten that was walking in the middle of the road. Another car in front of him had stopped and moved the kitty off to the side and he just waltzed right back into the street in front of my husband’s car and sat down again in the road.

While parked and waiting for our daughter to come out to the van he said the cat walked alongside our van and walked underneath it. He had our daughter grab him and put him on the side of the road and he just sat there and stared at the car as they were preparing to leave. My husband called me and told me that he sees a lot of stray cats, but that this one actually worried him because of how unafraid he was of cars and the road. Without him even having to ask and after thinking for a second I sighed and told him to bring him home if he would come to them. Our daughter got out and he walked right up to her and into her arms.

He is probably a few months old and he’s very bony and thin. The whole ride home my husband said he sat perched on our daughter’s shoulder curled up against her neck. He was unfazed by our dogs in the backseat and not afraid of the experience at all!

Our daughter gave him a flea bath while we set up a quarantine area in our bathroom. Went to the store and bought a litter box, cat bed, and wet kitten food and after watching him voraciously eat his little 3 ounce can I put him in his bed and he looked so confused and just climbed into my arms and clung to my chest. So as any sane person would do I spent the night camped out on the bathroom floor (something I haven’t done since my young twenties lol) with him purring on my chest or in my arms all night.

So anyways that is our short, simple story of our most expensive mani/pedi appointment as it will lead to hopefully many, many years of kitty cat treats, vet appointments, toys, pet sitters and lots of love. We will be taking him to the vet tomorrow and working on a name in the meantime!