Like I said in my last post, Jerbs' mom unexpectedly passed away last year. It truly came out of nowhere and I think it goes without saying that it was just a terrible, terrible time. The combination of the loss and being so far away when it happened (because we were in WA, obviously) was just . . . overwhelmingly bad. And on top of that, there was a huge delay as far as the funeral/burial, and because that was all so uncertain, we weren't able to plan flights and had to road trip to AZ. That drive suuuucks.
So anyway, we were in Kingman at the end of June. Jane's whole side of the family (9 brothers and 2 sisters plus their spouses and kids and, in a few cases, grandkids) were in town. I really only spent time with them on the days of the services for Jane, but Jerbs, of course, was with them non stop. The week we were there, Austin was playing in a baseball tournament; he had a game on Thursday night, a few days after we arrived, and by then, Jerbs needed a break from her fam, so she came with my family and me to Austin's game.
Now, my brother in law was there with my step nephew and step niece; my step niece (Nic) isn't super into actually watching ball games so she was off playing with her friends at the park. Nothing too new or exciting, but about halfway through the game, she walks up to the bleachers, carrying this tiny little grey kitten, and she pretty much holds it out to her dad and my sister and says, "I found this in a bush! I stuck my hand in to get it and it didn't bite me!"
The parentals were pretty much like, um, no, you can't have a cat. But I was sitting a little above them at the top of the bleachers and I could tell that the cat was possibly a Russian blue, so I called Nic over and took him. Sure enough, it was a little boy Russian blue, mauve paw pads and all. Jerbs and I were completely in shock. He fell asleep in Jerbs' lap, and pretty much didn't move for the rest of the game. We pretty much knew right away that we were going to be taking him home, because . . . well, how could we not? Thankfully Jerbs' aunt said he could stay at her house until we left, so after the game, we bought him some kitten food and a little litter box and all that, and took him over. He spent a few days there, and was spoiled/cuddled/loved on by all of Jerbs' aunts and uncles. We also put ads on Craigslist and Facebook, just in case he was somebody's cat already, but by the day we were leaving, we'd had no responses.
So we brought him home to WA with us. He loved the car ride home, and loved the dogs right away (and now he thinks he's a dog); he slept on my pillow in the hotel when we stopped for the night. For the first couple months we had him home he slept in my room, usually on my pillow, until he decided he was too big for that. He's a very brave cat--we intended to kind of keep him alone in my room for a week or so, because he was tiny and the apartment and other cats are so big. But . . . Niko had other ideas, and within a day he'd completely slipped past me and explored the house and met Irene and Ilya.
The girl cats have done OK with him. Irene is mostly disinterested, although she will sometimes lay next to him. She'll also kick his ass when he tries to jump her, which is usually pretty entertaining. He and Ilya are friends, though, and they cuddle and he grooms her and she sort of actually plays with him. Sometimes he's a bit much for her (he plays VERY aggressively sometimes) but mostly it's all good. And he still loves the dogs, and his fave thing is playing with Hollie.
We struggled naming him. We considered desert-ish names (Sage, Saguaro, Mesquite, Zona, Tumbleweed) and Peanuts related names (Snoopy, Woodstock, Spike) and Russian names (Ivan, Tolstoy, Leo, Dostoevsky). Eventually we settled on Nikolai, both because it's Russian and because it's similar to my step niece's name, Niko for short, with a middle name of James to honor Jane. Niko loves feather toys more than anything, he begs for treats with the dogs every morning, he walks on a leash like a champ, he and Jerbs usually fall asleep together on the couch on Friday nights, and when he was little he liked to be zipped up into my sweatshirts to keep warm. He is the sweetest, cutest, dumbest little thing and we love him so much.
I firmly, absolutely, 100% believe that Niko was sent to us by Jane to help us through the grief of losing her. The odds of finding a Russian blue kitten in (essentially) the desert, at the time that both of us happened to be there despite living 1200 miles away, the day after we laid Jane to rest . . . He was a gift from her. And the fact that he was so calm once he was with us, even though the crowd was cheering and there were other games going on and loud announcements happening--it was like he knew he'd found where he was supposed to be. Jerbs' aunts and uncles all agreed. I am so grateful that we got him, because I think he really has helped Jerbs through losing her mom; he's a tiny tangible reminder that her mom is watching over her, and that's beautiful.
And now some pictures of our little pal.
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| Stealing my office chair. |
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| Cuddling with Jerbs on the drive from AZ to WA. |
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| The first time he got into my window on his own. |
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| All zipped up in my sweater. This was how I worked for most of his first winter with us. |
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| Growing up handsomely. |
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| He sleeps in the funniest positions. |
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| Hiding under the Christmas tree table so he could jump out at the dogs. |
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| When he got neutered and had to wear the cone. |
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| He LOVES to shred paper products, so if paper towels, toilet paper, tissues, etc. get left out . . . they get attacked. |
