Estimated reading time: 2 minutes
I’d been thinking about getting a cat.
A friend said it might help.
The house had been quiet lately. Too quiet.
I wasn’t in a rush.
But one night, I started scrolling Kijiji.
So many listings. So many tiny faces.
It felt quite overwhelming.
And then I saw him.
Sami is one of the two ginger kittens for adoption. 3 weeks old.
One had orange eyes. One had blue.
I went to see them.
The couple who met me pulled up in a beat-up truck.
It was messy.
They opened a towel in the parking lot and showed me the kittens.
One with orange eyes. One with blue.
They looked the same, but not really.
“The blue-eyed one’s more playful,” they said.
“He’s the one you want.”
He’d just been washed. Still damp.
So small. So, so cute.
I didn’t have a carrier. Or a blanket. Or food.
Nothing. Realized I was not very prepared, but I knew I had to get him.
He didn’t want the passenger seat.
Climbed right over and curled up on my lap.
And that’s how we drove home.
An hour on the highway, no plan, just me and this tiny cat who decided I was his person.
When we got home, I ran to Shoppers.
Grabbed a one-time litter tray and whatever food I could find.
He was starving.
Tried to eat, but the kibble was too big.
He struggled with it.
Then he pooped on my blanket.
Liquid. Sudden. A mess.
That’s when I started putting the pieces together.
They’d washed him because he was sick.
Hungry.
(Later I’d find out he had ringworm. That’s another story.)
That night, he wouldn’t sleep on the floor.
He kept climbing onto my head — into my hair.
I have a lot of hair.
He curled up in it like a little nest.
And that’s where he stayed.
Wobbly. Tired.
But home.
That day was a mess.
I wasn’t ready. He wasn’t well.
But it was the start of everything.
His birthday is September 12, 2020.
But to me, this was Day One.
