This week’s innerview-ees reminded me, again, of how FOR-chuh-nut me an a lotta you fellow pets are to have safe, loving Furever Famlies right off the bat, an how im-POR-tunt it is for so many humans to adopt Pets-Less-FOR-chuh-nut.
Kiko an Lilly Belle Elliott are liddle lady cats rescued from Dire Straits Just in Time. As their Mom welcomed me an my assistant in, I glanced to the right in time to see a liddle gray tabby flyin’ off into another room.
As we were gettin’ settled on the couch, a pretty Sia-MEESE-looking cat, cream with those nice dark ear tips, strolled up.
“Good afternoon,” I said puhlitely. “I’m Bonzo an this is my assistant. “Thank you for agreeing to an innerview, Miss, umm …”
After a brief-Sniff-an-Size-Up on her part, the liddle cat smiled. “Good afternoon, Mr. Bonzo. I am Kumiko Cerina Elliott. You may call me Kiko. The fluffball who fled upon your arrival is my big sister Lilly Belle. This is my Mom Susan. Dad’s restin’. (Lilly Belle calls him Pops.) So I’ll tell my tail first, OK? Then we’ll find Lily Belle (she’s super shy).”
“That’s purr-fect, Miss Kiko,” I said, opening my notebook. “I know you’ve both experienced some pretty scary stuff so just talk about whatever you feel comftubble with concerning how you found your Furever Home.”
Kiko curled up on a liddle box, wrapped her tail around her, an began.
“It was this past May, I was a tiny stray kitten, hangin’ around this very neighborhood, not sure what to, you know, DO. My Future Furever Mom used to say hello (she called me Baby) an pat me a liddle, an wonder where my home was. I’m not sure I even had one, ackshully. But, THEN, I was walkin’ across that hard street tryin’ to get back on the soft grass when, BLAM, something big an scary ran right into me. I don’t remember much after that, until Future Mom found me in her guh-rage, Thank Garfield.
“Oh, Woof, Miss Kiko!” I exclaimed.
“So, Future Mom picked me up, washed me off with a liddle rag, carefully put me into a carrier and took me to the Vet. Turns out I had what the Vet called Head Traw-muh anna frack-chured jaw. He fixed me up an showed my Future Mom (by then, she was my Furever Mom) how to pruh-pare my speshull foodstuffs an medicine and give ’em to me through a liddle tube for 10 days. Since Mom works atta Senior Living Community an hadda go to work, she’d take me an all my stuff with her. All the residents would stop by Mom’s office to say hello an give me liddle pats.
They all loved me. I’d purr an make biscuits. I was So Happy. Still am. Soon as I got All Better, I had the No-Kittens -pruh-SEED-jur, an Mom says I’m the happiest cat she Ever Met!!”
“Great tail, Miss Kiko! Do you think Lilly Belle would maybe tell her tail as well?”
“Yes. I would,” came a small voice from under the table.
I could see very wide gray front paws an a pretty liddle Tabby face peepin’ out. “As long as you feel comf-tubble, Miss Lilly Belle.”
“I will do my best, Mr. Bonzo. I am exceedingly shy. An you’re very, well, LARGE, no offense. But you do seem kind. OK, here I go.
“Ackshully, I got rescued by Mom buh-fore Kiko did. It was May 6, 2021, an like Kiko, I was a tiny kitten, dazed an confused in the middle of this Really Big Street which Mom says is called Royale Pomm Bully-vard, I think. I was so scared cuzza all the big, loud muh-chines everywhere. I couldn’t even move. Mom was drivin’ an saw what she thought was a Wal-Mart bag cuzza the gray color but then, Thank Garfield, saw two ears stickin’ up an ree-lized it was ME. She screeched to a stop, made the other big muh-chines stop, jumped out and scooped me up. A man in a Very Big Truck slowed down, looked at me, waved, an said ‘Awwwwww.’
“Right then an there, I knew I was safe an hadda Furever Home. I haff to admit, I have a liddle Separation Anxiety about Mom. I mean, she probly saved all nine of my lifes. I always jump on her shoulder when she comes home from work, an STAY THERE.
“Mom took me to the VET, who figured out how old I probly was, an found out me an Mom have the Same Birthday. WAY Cool Catnip! Mom also told the Vet she thought I’d maybe been hit by (I found out they’re called CARS) because my front paws seemed extra wide, like they’d been mushed. So the vet checked. Then she smiled at Mom an said, ‘Nope, no injury. THIS is a Hemingway Cat!’”
Because I’d ackshully met a Hemingway cat when I was in Key West to innerview a Cool Kibbles pooch named Pie, I knew they were cats with six-toe front paws, who lived inna big house with a human called Hemingway, who wrote stuff. An the relatives of his six-toe cats have traveled all over since then. Crispy Biscuits, doncha think?
“So,” Lilly Belle continued, “when me an Kiko first met, I’m afraid I went a tad Fuh-ROW-shus Lioness. I do sorta have Watch Cat In-stinks. But Kiko wasn’t scared a bit. She’d just say, ‘Good morning, Miss Lilly Belle!’ She was so silly an sweet, I began feelin’ like she was my liddle sister.
I’d groom her, carefully cuzza that tube she had for a while. Now I just grab her an groom her so she’s always neat an tidy.”
Heading home, as previously mentioned, I fondly thought about my new cat frens an all the kind humans like Miss Susan who rescue so many Pets-Less-FOR-chuh-nut. P.S.: Miss Lilly Belle was too shy to come out from under the chair for a phodo.
Till next time,
