20 June 2023

That today would have been Max's 22nd birthday was not on my mind when I woke up this morning. Mostly what I thought when I rolled over and opened my eyes was "Oh, gawd, it's not even 7 am," and then "Finally, I can pick up my bike today."

One of my e-bikes has been in the shop for 5 weeks; the pedal assist just kind of didn't work, and given how pricey these bikes are, I really wanted it to work (and it's too freaking heavy to ride without...trust me, I racked up 40 miles on it and it was like dragging a ton with me.) It took Pedego (manufacturer) to that long to come up with a fix for it, but they did, so an hor before the shop opened we headed up there (because it's an hour away) to pick it up.

I wanted to go early so we would have enough time to drop the bike off and then head back in the same direction, because today was the day we decided it was time.

We're ready for cats.

It also felt like it HAD to be today.

While I drove, Spouse Thingy looked at their website and found a whole bunch of possibilities, and even though I was firmly NO TUXEDOS he spotted a pair. 13 weeks old, surrendered at the same time, one black and white like Max was, and one gray and white.

He looked at others, but kept coming back to those two. So sure, I wanted to meet them.

The names on the papers attached to their fairly spacious and very-not-cagelike cage had them tagged as Tinker and Belle. 

Tinker (boy) is a black and white tux who kinda resembles Max at that age, but is not a duplicate.

Belle (girl) is, despite the photo, a gray and white tux...and did not like me.

I don't think she would have liked anyone. She seemed more annoyed than scared and didn't want to be held, which is fine. I wouldn't want a total stranger holding me close, either.

 

She did pose, though. 

I swear, she's gray LOL

But this guy...Mike held him first, and Tinker just kind of melted against him. He was quite content to be cuddled.

After I set the little girl back in the cage--because that's where she wanted to be and I believe in consent, which I did not have--I really looked at the little boy.

And then it hit me.

We were there to adopt 2 cats on Max's 22nd birthday. And they both resembled him, but not enough to make it a deal breaker.

Dudes, I cried. 

Right there by the cat cages, I got choked up and cried a little.

These two felt like fate. It was a done deal.

They can't come home until next week; they're scheduled for spaying and neutering on June 26th in the morning, so we can pick them up that afternoon. That gives us time to get their room sorted (yes, we took all the gaming stuff out of Max's old room, and it will be given to them) and to buy some toys and another cat tree (yes another...LOL we bought one already.)

They also need names. Neither Tinker nor Belle really float our collective boat.

When Max and Buddah died, we promised ourselves we would wait a couple years before adopting new pets. The idea was to take time to travel and do things, but COVID happened so there was no going anywhere anyway, and by the time we could it was like, eh, we kinda like staying home.

And still, I especially was not ready.

Until today.