So after many years of hoping and wishing for an animal, after Jed’s two years of immunotherapy for me and at least two to three more years of it to come, we finally have our first animal. An 11 week old kitten Calypso. I started my kitten search in mid January by looking on petfinder.com. It was very important to us to adopt a kitten from a shelter instead of buying one so that not only do we get our kitten, but we also save one from more unpleasant fates. After weeks of searching and not finding any kittens (didn’t realize that there is actually a kitten “season” and that it is, in fact, not in the middle of winter).
We finally heard from a friend who happened to be fostering kittens. She was fostering kittens in Montana as well as Virginia. Jed liked the idea of a kitten from Montana (a little closer to his roots) so we inquired about those kittens. It turns out there were three of them and they were “Torbies” whose mother was a tortiseshell and father was a tabby. They were beautiful kittens and one in particular (named Lyla at the time) fit the peronality profile that we were looking for exactly. I really wanted a kitten who was not timid or shy and wouldn’t go hide under the bed whenever we, or other people came into the room. I also wanted a kitten who was a cuddler/lap cat. Someone who I can study with when I’m back on the wards.
Bingo. We met her for the first time today, and man, she is the world’s most perfect cat. For us. I’m not biased or anything. She is so incredibly sweet. She hates the cat carrier, so on the way home, she slept in my lap and in my arms. Such a purr machine too. I hope that we can have friends over soon to socialize her with other people as well. It is impossible not to love this cat. Beauty, brains, and personality. Our first child for sure!
I was raised my whole life around animals. A lot of animals. My mom, in fact, is a bit crazy about them. So it comes about that some of this craziness has rubbed off on me. I absolutely love animals. Unfortunately, as luck would have it, Jed has always been very allergic to animals. Pretty much all animals. I realize that it is probably never in the cards for me to have an animal of my own, and truthfully, this is devastating to me. Unless you too are a bit crazy about animals, it may be hard to understand my level of devastation. I love Jed more than anything, so I accept this fact. However, since I can’t just shut it off, I visit the pet store in the mall whenever I go, even if I’m not on that side of the mall. I stare in the windows and never let myself play with them, as the pet store employees offer, because I know that I can never have them and it would be just too hard to let them go. I know, this sounds really sad (or perhaps, I sound really sad), but fortunately, this story has a happy ending. For Christmas this year, Jed found a way to top every gift he’s ever given me (except the wedding ring, of course). This is the video of that gift, as also seen below.
She is so incredibly sweet. She hates the cat carrier, so on the way home, she slept in my lap and in my arms. Such a purr machine too. I hope that we can have friends over soon to socialize her with other people as well. It is impossible not to love this cat. Beauty, brains, and personality. Our first child for sure! 
