How I acquired two special needs kittens . . .

It started innocently enough. I was having cappuccino and ricotta cheesecake on a Sunday morning with two friends, Mike and Kendra, and Kendra’s daughter Sarah. We were sitting outside on the patio of our favorite café in Nicolosi, basking in the sun and chatting. It was Sarah, I’m sure, who first spotted the two black kittens running around the parking lot. With the local Sicilians coming and going in their usual haphazard driving manner, this was a dangerous place for them to be. Clearly, they were abandoned, and furthermore, each of them had only three paws, one missing a right and the other a left back paw. It wasn’t like they were born that way, either, but there had been some kind of horrible accident that had severed them off. I don't even want to think about it.

The next thing I knew, we were coaxing them to our table and feeding them scraps of cheesecake. They were scrawny and starved. "Awwwww . . .," we all said (especially Kendra and Sarah).

“They aren’t going to last long in that parking lot,” said Mike. “This is just going to ruin my whole day!”

“Why don’t you take them home then?" I asked.

“I can’t have pets in my apartment.”

“Well, I don’t think my dogs would appreciate them,” added Kendra. She was right.

“Hey, Marj has the mouse problem. Let’s call her!” We did, but she was having no part of a pair of kittens with six paws between them. Marj is our principal. We all got glummer and glummer as the prospect of leaving them to get run over seemed likely.

“Well,” I said unwillingly, “ I DO have the perfect yard for them. I can’t leave them here to just get run over.”

Next thing I knew, we were all in our cars heading the two blocks to my house with the two kittens in Sarah’s lap.

It’s been ten days, and they are still here, now fat and sleek and loving little things. One’s stump is still not completely healed, and he’s the smaller one of the two. I supposed I’ll actually have to take him to the vet if it doesn’t heal soon. Kendra, Sarah, and Mike (godmothers and godfather) have brought them food and come to visit and play with them.

The little twirps even sit at the gate waiting for me to come home now. They don’t have individual names. They are just “the kittens.” Pete and Repeat? They are and will remain outside cats. They are now trying to sneak into the house, but I keep catching them and turning them out. Heck, I don’t even like cats that much, but they sure are cute little things.