Izzy is almost 2 yrs old. When we got him at the shelter they told us he was a male domestic shorthair. After we got him home, we took a peek under his tail and what I saw looked like girl to me. Now, I am no doctor of veterinary medicine, but I thought I would be able to recognize male genetalia when I saw it. We named her Isabel. She was a gift for Shay for her 7th birthday. But she quickly became my baby. She developed an upper respiratory infection (which is quite common among shelter cats) and we had to take frequent trips to the vets for medicine and check ups. On about the third trip the doc was taking the kitty’s temp in the poop hole when he says "Uh Miss? This cat is a boy" He pushes on just the right spot and a little red worm like thing pops out."See? That’s his penis" Oops. Apparently kitten testicles don’t drop and become visable until they are a little older. My bad. Uh, I guess we will call him Izzy.
The little critter quickly became a huge part of our lives. Its hard not to love this cat. He is just the sweetest little loverboy ever. One day, while in the car, Shay says "Mom, I’m a little sad that Izzy really isn’t a girl because now she cant have kittens" I explain to her that although having kittens around the house might be nice, we wouldn’t be able to keep them, and finding homes for all of them and giving them away would be a hard thing to do. "Besides" I added "I plan on getting Izzy fixed very soon" Jared piped up from out of nowhere "Does that mean you are going to turn him back into a girl"?? LOL funny kid.
Fast forward to about a year later. This little orange kitty started hanging around our front porch. He was just a kitten and very friendly. I would sit on the bench on my front porch and hold the little guy while he would purr and fall asleep. He was so sweet. We started feeding him and we named him Fenway. He was coming around all the time and we were growing attached to him. When the weather started to get cooler, I decided that I was gonna take him to the vet, get him cleaned up and vaccinated and bring him in to our home. The moment I made that decision, we never saw Fenway again. I don’t know what happened to the poor little guy but I can only assume the worst. The kids, of course, were devastated. We talked a lot and went back and forth and finally decided to answer an ad in the paper for free kittens. We were in luck! They had one left!
This begins the story of The Colonel:
I get directions from some guy on the phone to go and see the kitty. We pull up to this place and the first thing we see is a little naked kid standing in the window. We knock on the door and Ed Norton’s character from American History X answered. Skinny little prick in a wife beater, covered in tattoos, cigarette hanging out of his mouth and an overflowing ashtray in his hand. We go in through the doorway and step right into white trash world. Naked kids, garbage, and mangy cats all over the place. My children stood right inside the doorway, frozen in horror. The "lady" of the house apparently didn’t consider our company significant enough to bother putting on a bra or even taking any simple personal hygienic steps most would consider a common courtesy. This looker shrieked for the cat thinking (I guess) that he would come running to the sound of a dying bird?? She finally chases the cat down and hands him to me. He is flea infested, dirty, and has an apparent mental disability. (ever see a cat with downs syndrome?) But I could not leave that poor creature in that house. I thanked the nice couple and brought the kitty home with us. He was wormed and de-loused and vaccinated and cleaned up and brought into our home. His official name is Stewie. But I call him the Colonel. He looks a lot like Col. Sanders to me with that kick ass goatee. He is also affectionately called Kentucky Fried Kitty. It took a little bit before Izzy was comfortable with him but now they are the best of buds. They are so cute when they play together.
At his first vet visit, the doc looked into the Colonels ears and apparently missed the beginnings of an earmite infestation. A few months later I had Izzy at the docs for a check up and some booster shots and Dr. Zhoni found a whole colony of those nasty little critters. So now I have to treat both kitties. Poor little guys. I have to hold them down twice a day and give them drops in their ears. They absolutely HATE it. I am all scratched up from this. I just wish I could explain to them that its for their own good. They have no idea why momma is torturing them like this. They aren’t used to getting anything but love from me.
I wonder what the little one is going to do when I get him fixed next week?
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