COVID KITTEN

 Did you get a Covid pet? So many people have adopted new critters into their houses. We are not the exception. 

This is the story of Louis Marshmallow Flufington

But first, backstory...

Our beloved Butters the cat died last fall.

For years we have said "WE WILL NOT REPLACE PETS" 

So then we had one bunny, one cat and a dog. 

That felt good. And our half feral cat, named Orange, decided without Butters he liked being inside more. That felt nice, to have him around a bit. But you see, cats are my favorite. BY FAR. I thought my whole childhood I would want a dog, I begged every year from 4 until 13. I got a bird, fish, rabbits, baby rabbits (I was allowed to mate them!), and numerous cats. But NO to the dog. Well, when I was a teenager my parents were getting a divorce and my brother went to college and I GOT A DOG. I had my Golden Retriever Hanna for 13 years and she even got to live in Vermont with Torrey and I. After she died we made it TWO weeks without replacing the dog, then got our current dog Nancy. But I have slowly come to terms that if I was to have 1 pet, it would be a cat. Im an introvert who is semi anti social so, it fits. So now with kids in the mix we were not getting any more pets....

Then Covid hit, and my husband and I both really like cats. And the one cat... like I said, is mostly outdoors and feral and doesn't like pets or us all that much. We really missed having a cat buddy. So Torrey had a failed attempt at picking out a young cat from the Humane Society (apparently everyone was also picking out a young cat from the Humane Society) So I put some feelers out on Instagram.

And wouldn't you know, a lovely, mostly online, Vermont friend (who also has a son named Wesley) knew of this farmer down the road who always had kittens. Sweet kittens, friendly kittens, she promised. So a few days later we were put in touch with Delores on the phone. She told Torrey she had 'One black and white one left', she was shocked when she learned we would drive all the way from Burlington (an hour) to pick it up.  We were shocked there seemed to be one miracle ready to go kitten available somewhere. Apparently she hadn't heard of the kitten/pet shortage. She could have charged $300 for that kitten, easy. So up we drive to this log cabin farm house with two calves out front and in Torrey goes with mask on in early May of pandemic spring 2020.

Ten minutes later out he walks with a kitten as big as his hand and 5 lbs of fresh Vermont ground beef. She wouldn't let him pay for the kitten, so he bought the beef. And that is the true Vermont Covid story of how we got Louis. 

We don't know what his siblings or mother looked like. You know how partners/husbands left to their own devices never ask the questions you would ask? Torrey did ask what brand of cat food he ate and she just gave him a funny look and said food scraps... and dry cat food. This was a Vermont farm and we were already asking city people pet questions. There was one kitten, we said we wanted a kitten, and here is the kitten. Torrey didn't really feel the need to chat it up with Delores further.

Now people might think we got this cat for the kids, to keep them entertained during the Covid spring. But no, this kitten was my mothers day present and it was my best day of 2020 by far. I will always be a cat person.  

Please let me know if you also got a Covid Pet! Its the heartwarming stories I want to hear the day of a presidential election. Pictures are great too. 

Here are more of Louis: