Sonny the Kitten

Meet Sonny the kitten.

Last Saturday, as my friends Paula and Andrew were leaving my house, a little kitten came running up the driveway. There are a few cats in my neighborhood that are owned by my neighbors, but this was a new one. I’ve never seen him before. As I was saying goodbye to my friends, I picked him up and as I was petting him noticed that he was very skinny. So I after they left I went in the house and got some water and some of Pepper’s food. After I fed him, it was all over. That little kitten didn’t want to leave. I spent a little bit of time outside hoping that someone would walk by looking for their little kitten, but no one ever did. I checked him over for any sign of being in a cat fight or anything else that may be wrong. He was a little dirty and had leaves in his fur, but that was all I could find. So I went and grabbed Pepper’s brush and brushed the kitten to get the leaves out and as much dirt as possible. Pepper seemed curious about him so I brought him in the house with some hesitancy because I didn’t know if this kitten had some sort of disease. The kitten wouldn’t stop purring as he sat in my lap and on the couch next to me as we watched Cops. I put him outside once it got dark and hoped that he would find his way back to his house. When I woke up Sunday morning, that little kitten had stayed all night and was crying for some more food, so of course I had to feed him again.

This little kitten had figured out how to weasel his way into my soft spot for kittens. I now had to take care of this kitten until I either decided to keep him or turn him over to the pound. On Monday, I called around to a couple animal shelters and got no response, so I tried again on Tuesday. The Humane Society didn’t seem too interested in taking him. Tuesday, I named him Sonny. And according to the news, the over night temps were going to be in the middle 40s, so I decided to bring the kitten in the house for the night. He did well in the house and even used the little box. Wednesday afternoon, I decided I would keep him and said on Thursday morning I would call and make an appointment for him to get his shots. Well, between Saturday and Wednesday when I would allow Sonny in the house with Pepper, Pepper increasingly started trying to find ways to run up behind and pounce, pounce from the side, and try to get him from above. There was never any down time for Pepper. I was starting to get annoyed with the hissing and all the running. Yesterday before I went to work pepper and Sonny were still at it and I decided that I wanted my Pepper back to the way he was before and decided to bring Sonny to Huntsville Animal Services.

I left work around 3:30 yesterday to scoop up Sonny, give him his last good cat food meal and take his picture. I was really worried about if I was doing to right thing, but once I got there the workers put me at ease. They were all very sincere and truly cared about animals. And of course Sonny won over the lady that took him from me. As soon as she took him out of the pet taxi she set him on her lap and he started purring and just sat there. I felt really good leaving him there because he had already made a human friend and I know he would be well taken care of. When I got home from dropping Sonny off, Pepper was looking around the house for him and couldn’t find him. He eventually gave up and went back to sitting in his favorite window. When I got home from my second job, he looking for Sonny again then gave up. This morning, Pepper appeared to be about 95% back to his usual self and I was happy to be back down to one animal.

It was fun to have a kitten outside keeping me company while I did some gardening last Sunday; but I now know how Pepper would react to having another cat in the house. I have decided that for my own sanity I don’t need to have 2 cats. One is just fine for me.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.