Black Cat Appreciation Day 8/17 – meet our new black kittens!

Well this couldn’t come at a better time! Yesterday my daughter told me that this Saturday (August 17th) is Black Cat Appreciation Day! Normally this is not something I would pay much attention to, even though I love cats of every color, but since we adopted two black kittens a couple of weeks ago, this is a special day indeed!

For my daughter’s 17th birthday she asked for a kitten. Then she asked my husband if she found a kitten but there was also a sibling in the cage, could she take it too. After all, she wouldn’t want there to be one lonely brother or sister left behind. She is a good egg, that daughter of mine. My husband agreed, so it was kind of known that we would be getting two babies.

As my daughter and I wandered around the kitten room of the shelter, we were greeted by tiny “mews” and little paws reaching out to us. This was going to be difficult. I wanted to take them all home. We talked to the babies and played with them the best we could through the cages. I found several that were so sweet and darling – little tiger striped babies, a few solid white, tortoise shell, etc., all of which would probably be a great fit for us, but my daughter announced that she found the kittens she wanted.

She led me to a cage on the bottom and pointed. “Them”, she said, “I feel a connection with these two”. What was inside kind of surprised me – they were both solid black cats! I have owned a lot of cats in my lifetime, but have never had an all black cat. Our dearly beloved Sylvester was black and white (with white whiskers – so cute). She seemed very confident in her decision to adopt these two brothers, so we asked a volunteer if we could hold them. The volunteer handed us each a kitten and they both started purring immediately as they snuggled in close to our chests. We were both sold 🙂 We asked her if we could put them down, but she said no, as they could get under the cages and it would be hard to get them out. I had to agree with her on that.

We brought our babies home and let them out of the carrier in my daughter’s room. She had been kitten-proofing her room for days, so everything was ready to go for their arrival. They ran out of the carrier and ran and ran. They jumped, they played. They stretched, did the cute sideways hop that kittens do, and their tails poofed up as they scared themselves.

Every time we picked one up, they purred furiously. My daughter named them Kaiser and Chance.

But we noticed something strange about one of them. Chance (the smaller of the two brothers) didn’t have a foot! He ran around just fine, and it really didn’t seem to slow him down, but we were still surprised that the shelter didn’t tell us about this. Since we couldn’t see them walking, and their cage was kind of dark (and them too), we didn’t even notice this while we were there.

We made an appointment at the vet, just to get them checked out. The vet determined that Chance’s leg was a birth defect and more than likely he will be just fine. We will watch him carefully to make sure it doesn’t cause him any pain. You would never know of his disability while watching him run – he is a fast little sucker!

We have had the kittens for about 2 weeks now, and we are completely and utterly in love with them. They are the SWEETEST little things! When you walk into the room, they “mew” and purr SO loudly. They love to snuggle (when they aren’t busy chasing each other around), and Kaiser is totally going to be a lap cat. He will immediately come and sit on any new visitor, stare up lovingly, and oh my.

So back to Black Cat Appreciation Day!

When we were doing the paperwork at the shelter, the guy who was helping us said, “Oh, they are black kitties – how cool! People rarely adopt black kitties, and here you are taking two!”. This made us really sad, but it also made us smile. The little guys were going to be loved and cared for forever with us.

Black cats, senior cats and cats with disabilities usually have a harder time getting adopted. We have a black cat with a disability, but we wouldn’t trade him for the world. I cannot begin to tell you how much they are adored, and what wonderful and funny personalities they have. Even my 23-year old son who is pretty quiet, confessed to being in love with them. They just have a way of warming the heart!

If you are a cat lover like us, I hope the next time you get a cat, that you will consider a black kitty!