Twiggy

I mentioned we got a cat.

Meet Miss. Twiggy...

Due to what some believe, I am still an animal lover. I still wanted my children to grow up with some type of animal around the house. In fact, I probably said to David at least once a week that I wanted to get another dog. I would even send him random text pics of random dogs I thought were cute and would beg to have. His response was to wait a little bit and see what happened family wise. After Bella, we had decided that we would go for a puppy next time, but just a few weeks after that, my sisterwife Amy got a new puppy. It has been awhile since I've had a puppy and I forgot just how much work they are. After spending a day with Amy and her new puppy, I told David that I realized I did not want to a puppy anytime soon. So, we dropped the pet talk for a while.

Soon after that, my Mother-in-law mentioned that she would take Olivia to play with her Uncle Joey & Aunt Lisa's cats, anytime Olivia was over and that she loved them. Months earlier, David and I had noticed that Olivia loved watching my Aunt and Uncles cats every time we went over there. I even joked to David back at Christmas that I think we had a cat lover in our normally dog loving family.

He finally came around to agree with me on Father's Day when we got to see her interact with Uncle Joey & Aunt Lisa's cats for the first time. Olivia went ballistic....in a good way. David for the first time agreed that our little girl was more a cat person than a dog. And to be completely honest, right now our lifestyle is more suitable for a cat than a dog.

So, to how she came about....

Sunday afternoon, I was literally walking in the door to my friend Tiffany's babyshower when I got a call from Amy. She was at Petsmart and there was a woman there with a cat rescue group and she had a beautiful cat that Amy thought would be perfect for us. She gave me a quick run down of her story and all I could say is let me call Dave. I gave him a call, ran the story by him, and he said your call. Which means "go for it." So, after the shower, I hauled bootay up to Petsmart to get there before the lady was scheduled to leave. As soon as I walked up and told her who I was, she had a look of relief on her face. She explained that Twiggy had been in foster care for over a year now. They had taken her in when her owners were found to be cat hoarders and did not take her to the vet after being hit by a car. She had a broken leg that went untreated for some time. For a while they did not put her up for adoption due to the fact they wanted to make sure her leg was ok. It healed on it's own and the vet assured them she was not in any pain. She walks with a limp and her front right foot is turned outwards. That and the fact she's an adult cat, she had several odds staked against her to be adopted. Especially since she's always up against cute little kittens.

Amy and I both talked at length with the foster lady about what happened a few months ago and how our biggest concern was our childrens safety. Luckily, she had already been declawed, so we don't have to worry about any scratching of faces or tearing up of furniture. The foster family she's spent the last year with had four children 12 and under (two of which were there and I got to ask questions to), so the lady assured me she was use to being in a loud household and being yanked on all day. She assured me that she felt totally safe with her kids being around Twiggy. I bluntly asked the lady why if she was so wonderful, why she didn't keep her and she explained being a foster home, she can only keep so many, which includes her own cats. She had probably 15 kittens there with her, so I don't even want to know what that number is. I think myself to be a pretty good people reader and I told David I felt this lady was being sincere and really wanted a good home for Twiggy. So, I said we'll take her.

After signing as much paperwork as we did to adopt a child and doing a quick little shopping spree (because we had absolutely nothing for a cat), Twiggy and I headed home.

Olivia flipped when we came in the door. So much so, I wish I had it on video. She started running around screaming "it's a cat!!!!" for a good ten minutes. She was so excited. She even ran up to me and motioned me to bend down, when I did, she planted a big kiss on me. I looked at David and I think we both kinda teared up. It was one of those I'll never forget. We finally calmed her down and distracted her long enough to let Twiggy come out of the carrier on her own.

Twiggy felt at home the moment she stepped out of that carrier. She was running around and snuggling up to us the moment she got here. I told someone the other day that honestly, it feels like she's been apart of our family for years. David and I both agree that out of all the animals we've ever owned, Twiggy has the best personality out of any of them. I know you never know with any animal, but Twiggy has done fantastic with Olivia so far. We've been on top of them all week and it's much easier now since Olivia understands what being gentle and back off means. Olivia has now quickly learned what "be gentle" and "leave her alone" now. She just honestly wasn't at a point she was capable of understanding six months ago. Twiggy has been great with letting her pet her and even plays with her. Honestly, Twiggy is more active and playful than any dog we've had before. So far, it's been perfect. She plays with Olivia during the day and at night, snuggles on the couch with David or I. I honestly have fallen in love quickly with her. I think it's even safe to say the once cat hater (cough, cough...mr. mabrey) has even quickly been reformed.

Here's the best pic I could get of her "special foot." Like two year olds, she doesn't stay still long enough to get a non blurry pic. I know this is mean, but she is hilarious looking when she runs. She does this little windmill looking thing and it's hard to not laugh.

And yes, a lesson has been learned out of all this. Though we have a soft spot for them, we will never again just get any type of animal at the pound. We will for now on only get our pets from a rescue place or breeder. The fact that the foster parent has spent the last year with her and knows how she behaves and interacts with children, has honestly worked out for the best. Just getting them from the pound where no one knows a thing about them, obviously isn't the best idea. Especially when there are kids involved. Oh, and a dog is not totally out of the question in the future. We still want another dog, but want to wait a few more years before we add the responsibility of a puppy.

***I know that a few of my real life friends were having trouble commenting on the blog, so awhile back, I changed the settings to allow anonymous comments just so they could comment. Unfortunately, some readers who have already been blocked, are still leaving unwanted comments, so I decided to change the settings back to where you have to have an account. Sorry to those friends, you'll just have to go back to commenting on facebook again. Some people just have nothing better to do than stalk and judge. All I have to say to those is get a life!!!***