This is our new little bambina, "Stickers". She is a sweet little orange tabby (who coincidentally looks like the "Mini-Me" version of our other kitty, Bella). She is a short haired, yellow-blue eyed little runt. Some of you may know the story of how we got Stickers, but I will give you the reader's digest version here. On Sunday, a couple of weeks ago, Thomas and I went over to Mom and Dad's for family dinner. Mom went out to the garden to pick some tomatoes, and called out to me sarcastically, "Hey Alli, did I tell you that I have a kitten?!" I walked outside, and said, "huh?" (because mom doesn't want any pets, though she loves animals). And I could hear a tiny kitty crying. It was loud and constant, and a little unsettling, because it sounded sad or hungry. So I followed the sound, and saw the tiniest orange face peeking out from below my dad's woodpile. I love kitties, and it looked just like our Bella did last year, so I had to get closer. As I got a better look and the kitty, I noticed something was wrong with its eye. It kept crying as I got closer.
I became worried that it might have a foxtail in its eye. So I tried to get really close to see. Its little left eye was half closed with its third eyelid closed, and it was watery. The little kitty kept coming out, and running back under the woodpile when it would hear a car (East Ave. is so close to that woodpile). I saw what looked like a few foxtails around its eye. I was then determined to catch the kitty to remove the stickers. I tried to coax the kitty for about 20 min with no success and I finally got the idea to "meow" at her (thanks, Heavenly Father for that idea :o)). It worked, she came right out. I caught her, and as soon as I got my hands on her, I knew something worse than foxtails was wrong.
Her entire little body (about the size of a potato) was covered in cactus stickers/needles (cactus needles were donated by my parents' cactus, which is generous enough to have 2 different kinds of prickers. She was covered in the tiny hairlike needles and the large thick ones too). I was so upset! There was no way I could just put her back down, she was so young, she could've died.
I took her inside and Thomas held her while I pulled over a hundred needles from the tiny thing. She didn't cry or yelp at all, but she did purr like the dickens. We even put her in a bath to try to wash her off a bit. She didn't flinch, but started to try to lap up the water. We took her to the Humane Society and they gave her a shot, and sent her to be fostered by one of our tenants (who spent a further 2 hours pulling out needles). We decided to adopt her, and nurse her back to health. We still find stickers in her, the small ones are so hard to get. Obviously, this is how we came up with her name. "Stickers" just really seemed to fit. Her little paws still have little scabs and needles so far in, we have trouble getting them. Luckily they will dissolve soon enough, if we can't get them.
Hopefully you can tell from these pics that she is doing GREAT! She is happy, and purrs a lot! She has doubled in size and her fur looks clean and healthy. It broke my heart to pull cactus from her little lips, nose, paw pads and ears. She had several that went all the way through her ears (she did not enjoy those being removed). She doesn't like when we remove the stickers now, but it must have felt good to get all of the first ones out (or she was in so much pain, that she couldn't tell)... But, she is sweet, and funny and clumsy like all good kitties should be. Bella is still having a hard time sharing her castle with Stickers. Here are some pics of them:
Here is Bella hazing Stickers. And Stickers is up on the cat tree eating Bella's food (that didn't go over very well for Stickers). Bella is better now, but she is kind of a terrorist. She herds Stickers and wont let her come out of certain spots. Stickers keeps to the bedroom or bathroom and if she tries to venture out, Bella will chase her back in. I stopped calling Stickers to come out to the livingroom, because as soon as I would call, she would come, and Bella would pop out of nowhere to chase the little one back to the room where she APPARENTLY belongs!
But, here they are playing near eachother, but not really TOGETHER.
Here is little Stickers on the other cat tree, which she shimmies up like a squirrel, she climbs, but doesn't jump up there yet.
Anyway, that is the story of the sweet Stickers... Perhaps I will tell you all about Bella's hard time adjusting sometime. It's quite comical. I am glad that we rescued this cute baby, and I am happy that I have been blessed with a deep love for living things!
Here is the sweet sweet boy. He is beautiful and healthy and adorable!
Here I am, holding Zephaniah (whose name means something like "Treasured by God" or "Hidden by God") I am his Aunt Alli. Zenobia was "adopted" into the Albert family years ago. Since she is my sister, I get to be an Aunt! And I love this boy as though we were related by blood.
The proud mommy! And I am so proud of Zenobia! She was so strong and brave... No epidurals here. She has done so good! I love her so much. She is a good sister.
Who knew when we met in Newspaper class, in 2000, that we would be so close, and that we would have families of our own. Who authorized us to grow up so fast?
