The little monsters.

Like any self-respecting romance writer, I have a small collection of furry friends. Mine are all of the feline variety. Want to meet them?

First came Bella. Wasn't she an adorable little thing? She, her litter-mates and their mommy were found in an abandoned apartment. Luckily, the lady who found them had a friend willing to take in the whole crew and find them good homes.

But kittens really should come in twos. We couldn't leave our new little darling home alone all day, could we? She'd be lonely.

She needed a sister. Enter Bonita. We got her from a rescue group. She was only a couple weeks older than Bella, but she took on a mommy role right away. Which was good, since our Bella is not a big fan of grooming. They hit it off right away and have been inseparable ever since.

While our girls loved each other, they were not very fond of OTHER CATS.

So, we weren't looking for another. Then Misha showed up at our door.

Seriously, he just appeared at our back door. I thought he was a stray at first, but when I walked to the door, he didn't run away. In fact, he leaned closer and tried to sniff my hand through the glass. So I poured him a bowl of food and went out to say hi. He was very hungry and very friendly. It was clear that he was pet cat. So I started checking lost cat ads and such. No luck. When he came back the next day, I opened the back door and he ran right in. I quickly stuck him in the bathroom and dug out the cat carrier. My hubby and I took him to our vet and had him checked for a micro-chip. Again, no luck. Our vet suggested that we check to see if someone was keeping him as an indoor/outdoor pet. So we tried taping a note to a collar and, once again, put him outside. He just kept coming back. He would scratch on the glass and meow to come in. It was getting cold out there! So, we collected him and brought him back to the vet.
We still had no intention of keeping him. Our girls had made it clear that they did not approve of the stranger in the bathroom. But he was a mess: fleas, missing fur, bite marks. We knew he needed to get cleaned up in order to find a good home. So the vet ran the scary tests. She was worried that all those bite marks might mean he had FHIV or Feline Lukemia. But he was good. Except, of course, for the fleas and the possible ringworm. Yuck.
Missing fur can mean ringworm, a fungal infection that is crazy contagious. Most shelters won't even try to save kitties with ringworm, so it was us or...yeah, we had to help.
Ringworm treatment? Ah yes, that's a Sulfer-lime bath every few days for weeks. It reeks. It also involves holding a cat under water. Misha was a trooper.

The medicine made his fur yellow and very stinky. Also, it had to air dry and we had to make sure he didn't lick it.
It was miserable for all of us, but he continued to be the sweetest cat I've ever seen.

In an effort to prevent getting ringworm, when I visited him in the quarantine room I wore a Snuggie and gardening gloves. He would purr and purr. And I fell in love. I tried to resist. Honest. He is just a snuggle bug.

So he finally got a clean bill of health from the vet and we decided to try introducing him to the girls. By this time, I had an offer from my hubby's Dad and Stepmom; they would take him if we couldn't keep him. Of course we wanted to keep him, but knowing he had home if we couldn't was wonderful.:)

I won't sugar coat it. It's been iffy. There were days our house felt like a war zone. Bonita is still clearly plotting his death. He has no more love for her. But at about eight months out, we're dealing. And, every once in a while, we see something truly wonderful.

That's Bella and Misha snuggling in a kitty bed. :) Victory!

Has anyone else tried to introduce an adult can into their home? For us it was crazy, but worth it.