Green Eyed Love

"Oh no... don’t you dare do that...!

I've made promises that need to be kept and you are making it way too hard on me to keep those promises! C'mon smalls, you're killing me here...!" I whispered in her general direction.

The slanted green eyes looked up innocently at me while I tried to look away. I looked over at my son, who was busy visiting with others in their little cages. I hoped he would find some little fur baby that he wanted to discuss with me, but he did not, and he was making his way toward us...oh, this was going to be way too hard to do...to walk away from this precious little one. At that point, I felt a tug on the front of my shirt. I looked down and into those beautiful, pleading green eyes and noticed the little paw snagging the front of my shirt, and felt myself soften, her little feline mouth opened into a big meow that never quite reached an audible level.

Oh-My-Goodness, I was already falling in love. Oh, no... oh, no... oh, no! I disengaged her little paw from my shirt, but before I could let her go, she curled her very tiny and very sharp nails into my finger and brought it to her face that was squished in between the wire cage and licked my finger!

Oh, good grief, I had to get away. I was feeling things in my heart that I had shut down the Fall before. I missed my 2 cats. They were almost 19 when I requested that the vet take them from their physical pain from kidney disease and let them go. That is one of the hardest things I had ever had to do. It gutted me and I had promised my husband that we would be animal free for a while. He was not an animal guy and had "endured" their presence our whole marriage. Our son, on the other hand, was much like me and missed them terribly.

Looking up, I saw my son edging closer to me and the cage that held this little gray tabby nugget that I was trying hard not to love. He had already mentioned a yellow tabby male that was currently trying to spray the inside of his kennel and I explained why that might not be a really good idea for us. I assured my kiddo that someone would give that kitty boy a good home. He agreed, and moved even closer to us, looking at a pair of dark brown kits that had eyes that were a little goopy (a total fixable issue to be sure) and had moved to the end where I stood in front of the wire cage.

My boy looked into the wire cage that held this little beauty. Appearing to be in deep thought, he paused and then my 6-year-old angel baby looked at me with a big smile on his face and triumphantly announced, "Well, here's our new cat...good job Momma. This kitty looks just like Thomas and Lady Bug!"

My heart simultaneously jumped for joy and fell to my feet in silent despair. When I explained to my boy, why we couldn't adopt her and take her home, he thought for a minute and then declared, "Well, Dad will just have to try and understand. He wants us to be happy, right?!" I nodded and he continued, "I will explain to Dad why it's so important for us to have this kitty...I just know he'll be fine with our decision!" His bravery made me smile and I agreed, knowing I would hear an ear full when his Dad called from Iraq.

We took this precious girl home with us. Her adoption fee was very reasonable, and we took her to our nearest pet warehouse store and spent four times as much on her food, bed(s), litter box, toys, treats, collar (that she has never kept on-she's an indoor girl) and every other thing a girl kitty could want or need.

When "Dad" got home from Iraq, our son reminded his father of the agreement they had made during the earlier phone calls after her adoption day. As it turned out, "Dad" became Izabella Rose's human boyfriend, so all was well.