But Mom, He's So Cuuute!

As if the tadpoles....

...and the crawdads weren't enough to be keeping in the house,  Wednesday night Koshi came bombing in the house shouting, "Mama!...

"...Mama!  There's a kitty in the middle of the road and his eyes are hurt! Can I go back and look for him?!?!"




I should have said no.  We live in company housing--no pets allowed.

I should have said no.  But looking at Koshi's stubborn expression, I figured, "Well, by the time he gets back to where ever he saw that kitty, it'll probably be gone.  What can it hurt?"

He and his sister came bursting back in the door some fifteen minutes later-- "Mama!  Look!" 

I looked at Koshi's face--saw him wipe a tear away.  Then I looked at the tiny orange bit of fluff wrapped in the old towel I had given him.

Well?  What would you have done?

I shouldn't have looked.
"See, mama?  His eyes are hurt!"  Not hurt--just crusted nearly shut with conjunctivitis.  But otherwise unhurt, I thought.  Hungry, surely--who knew how many days this little thing had been out wandering.  And I knew it was supposed to pour rain that night.

I looked at Koshi again.  I looked at the weak, rapidly breathing kitten... and I knew I couldn't tell Koshi to put it down and walk away.

I just couldn't.

"Alright--I can take him to the vet tomorrow to get medicine for his eyes if you promise to tell everyone at school that there's a kitty who needs a home."

"Yattaaa---!" (Yes!)

And thus has this wee bit of marmalade fluff wobbled his way into everybody's hearts...

One of these toys moves without batteries...

Within a day, he (found out at the vet) was much genki-er, eating well, and able to climb and jump.  Tora (Koshi's been calling him the Japanese word for Tiger), being toy-sized,  put himself into the toybox...

...except when it's sleepy.  Then toy doesn't move...

...and promptly went to sleep.

I took him the next morning, as promised, to the vet, who cleaned up his eyes and his ears and gave him heartworm medicine and his vaccination. Yup--definitely a boy.  450 grams.  One pound exactly.  Except for the conjunctivitis (which has cleared up in the meantime), basically a healthy kitty.

This was actually Koshi's idea...

The kids got Cici's old doll stroller out and wrapped Tora in old baby blankies and took him for walks up and down the hall...

...he went to sleep during that, too.  He seems to be a pretty laid-back kitty.  He hasn't hidden in a corner yet.  As soon as we brought him in, he cried in the box and stopped as soon as I held him.  Calmed right down on my lap.

Actually, my eyes are gray.  And all better:-))

We had a houseful of kids today--all the friends wanted to come see the kitty.  S-chan could hardly put him down--he rode around on her shoulder for quite a while with no complaint.

That little kitty wobbled from lap to lap, was held by eight different children, rode around in the stroller...

...then went right to sleep on Koshi's tummy after dinner.

Contented and unafraid

...Naturally Koshi was just enchanted.  So was I, for that matter.  This morning he used his little toilet all by himself, then climbed out of his box and into my lap... and promptly went to sleep.

I am in So. Much. Trouble.

Here's hoping that O-baasan falls for him, too...








 (p.s.-- brief blog break over the weekend, since we'll be at O-baasan's house 'til Monday.  The Azaleas will be out--I'll take pictures:-))