Welcome New Kitten

The Backstory

Some folks found an injured kitten in a Lakeland brewery a month or so ago. A friend over there took the kitten in and fostered it, naming her “Little Brew.” It turned out the kitty had a broken femur. Yowch! They hypothesized someone might have stepped on her.

Even though she had a broken femur, she was still a happy kitten. She climbed stairs, jumped on things. Just went about normal kitten business. Certainly she was in pain, but she handled it well. And she certainly wasn’t feral.

Her foster mom raised money to save the kitty and considered the best option for her. In the end, that ended up being amputating the leg.

Even days after amputation, she was super snuggly and wanting to get back to normal kitten life.

I told my friend early on in all of this that if no one else stepped up, I’d like to adopt the kitten. I’d been thinking of adding to the family for a minute anyway.

Current Events

On Tuesday, the kitten got a clean bill of health. Today she finally came to her new home!

I’ve been acclimating Bubo and Vélo to her. At first I kept them in different rooms and let the kitten explore. They didn’t like being locked in a room, so I released the beasts. I then let the kitten hang out, and I followed her and kept close. I didn’t want her to get cornered by either of the cats.

Vélo and the kitten have had some close encounters. Vélo seems truly curious about the kitten. He has hissed at her, and her back at him, but overall he doesn’t seem to wish her ill. I’m really proud of how he’s been taking being around the kitten. I think they’ll quickly become buddies.

Bubo, on the other hand, is pissed off. First she went to the top of the closet, and then the top of the refrigerator. She growls and hisses at me if I linger too long. She definitely didn’t react this extremely when I brought Vélo home when she was ~1.5 years old (him 8 weeks). I’ve been keeping the kitten away from her, and will continue to do so until I’m sure the kitten can get away from Bubo. Or until they are better friends.

If the kitten is as old as her vet papers say, she’s much smaller than either Bubo or Vélo were at the same age. By nearly 3/4 of a pound when compared to Bubo, and by 1.7 pounds when compared to Vélo. So I wonder if she’ll end up being small as an adult cat.

The kitten started off her day in my apartment nervous and shaking. She tried to find every hidey hole to avoid me and everything else.

But she quickly warmed up. She’s explored. She’s played. She’s napped. She’s eaten, drunk, and used the litter box.

I’ve crated her for part of the day so she has somewhere safe to be, and for awhile the crate door was open but she still hung out in there. Now she’s playing, with Vélo wanting to get in the fun. She hisses at him if he gets too close, and he’s been backing off.

The Name Game

So I’ve been considering names for awhile. “Brew” is a perfectly respectful name for a cat. But there’s just something about naming a pet that makes her more truly a part of your family for some reason. At least for me. Once I knew she was going to be an amputee, I sort of wanted a name that went along with her 3-legged status. But I couldn’t think of anything I liked along those lines.

Then today a friend made the perfect recommendation: Trinity. Obviously associated with the number 3. A whole lot of spiritual symbolism accompanies the word too. And then there’s Trinity from The Matrix. She was a super badass. And once you get deeper into The Matrix story, past the pleather-clad character, she’s filled with love too. So Trinity it is! And since my cats always end of with middle names (which can change depending on my and their mood), she’ll also keep the name she started off with.

Gratitude

So folks, I received the best Christmas gift of all today. Please join me in welcoming Trinity Brew to my awesome Homo sapiens and Felis catus family.

I’m so grateful to everyone who made it possible for me to adopt this lovely bundle of love and fur. Thank you so much to all of the people who contributed to Trinity’s medical care. They even made sure I have enough to take care of Trinity’s spay when it’s time!

And I’m insanely thankful to her foster parents for taking her in, organizing and going to all of the vet appointments, taking care of her while she healed after surgery, and even delivering her to me today! Not everyone would go to those lengths to save a kitten and then ultimately give her up.