Noko
You are all on tenterhooks waiting to hear Noko's story, so here you go:
It was a dark and stormy night...
Uh, no. The first part of this story was me convincing Hans that maybe we should think about getting a cat. Let's just face it, dogs don't work for us. We have tried it twice and we were extremely blessed to get good new homes for both of those animals. Elsa's new "parents" just sent us another e-mail with pictures of Elsa dressed up for Halloween and describing all the good work she's doing through Doctors Without Borders.
My thinking on the cat situation was that cats require a little less from human beings, you know? I mean, dogs are great, they have their benefits, for sure. I'm not knocking dogs. I just thought maybe a cat would be a little less...work?
There, I admitted it, I am lazy. I have a husband, three kids, school, multiple volunteer things going on and I'm about to be crowned COW. I have an ugly government house to keep clean, errands to run and shoes to buy. I keep forgetting to get toilet paper. So I don't need something else high maintenance taking up my precious time.
(On a side note, I'm having meetings or get-togethers almost every day and I've developed a newfound respect for working moms--oh holy crap, how do you get it all done? My sister works a tough job, goes to school, raises two busy boys, plays all kinds of sports and runs marathons...I can barely go to meetings where they serve me food and don't really ask that much out of me except to show up, nod and smile. You go, ladies--you ROCK!).
Noko is the subject here and as usual, I'm getting way off track with the subject matter.
Hans was surprisingly easy to win over. There's an organization on base called PAWS that fosters cats and dogs. They had a bunch of kittens available, but they wanted $400 for each kitten...and that's for a feral, un-spayed/neutered kitten. The ones at the Japanese pet stores are running between $800-$3,000. Yes, that's right, THREE THOUSAND dollars...for what looks to me like your standard Minnesota farm kitten. I could understand that purebreds are more expensive, but at one store, the Himalayan was actually less than the barn-looking cat.
Anyway...we looked at some kittens at Livin last Friday and after seeing the price, Hans suggested we stop at PAWS when we got back on base. We headed back to the building that PAWS was in in 2006, everyone unloaded and just as we're about to walk in, the vet comes out the door. Turns out they were headed out to lunch, but asked if they could help.
We explained that we were looking for PAWS (turns out they have a new location).
--Were we looking for a cat? A dog?
--A cat.
--Well, it just so happens that we have a cat here that was a stray on the base.
They kindly invited us in and took us back to meet the cat, who...shocker...turned out to be Noko (are you shocked?). She was/is this lovely, tiny little 3-year-old girl. All microchipped and spayed, etc. Someone on base owned her up until about three months ago. The vet isn't sure if they ditched her. They claim that she ran away, but sadly, we have a lot of people here who ditch their animals rather than go through the work of getting them back home. Especially cats.
I'm trying to wrap this up, I swear. We explained that Hans and I have allergies and they asked us if we wanted to bring her home over the weekend--we'd be doing them a favor as they wouldn't have staff in to take care of her over the weekend.
So--just like that, we were bringing little Noko home. She was a little skittish the first night, but after the kids went to bed, she stole out from her hiding spot and jumped into my lap and started kneading away. She's getting better every day at tolerating love from the kids, but she's still more content to find a private little hidey-hole and stay there until the house quiets down a little. She's tiny, but very vocal and she has a voracious appetite. The only issue we've had with her is that she eats too quickly and has thrown up a few times. Luckily we have a lot of hard flooring here. We have a special bowl on the way that will force her to slow down--I imagine that when she was out on the lam, she may not have eaten every night.
I'm looking forward to having her interact with the kids more and seeing her playful side. I love having a little furry being in our lives that jumps up and snuggles in with us...and I find it adorable how well my Kitten and my kitten are getting along--they are a couple of snugglers.
Konnichi wa, Noko! Noko from Yoko!
It was a dark and stormy night...
Uh, no. The first part of this story was me convincing Hans that maybe we should think about getting a cat. Let's just face it, dogs don't work for us. We have tried it twice and we were extremely blessed to get good new homes for both of those animals. Elsa's new "parents" just sent us another e-mail with pictures of Elsa dressed up for Halloween and describing all the good work she's doing through Doctors Without Borders.
My thinking on the cat situation was that cats require a little less from human beings, you know? I mean, dogs are great, they have their benefits, for sure. I'm not knocking dogs. I just thought maybe a cat would be a little less...work?
There, I admitted it, I am lazy. I have a husband, three kids, school, multiple volunteer things going on and I'm about to be crowned COW. I have an ugly government house to keep clean, errands to run and shoes to buy. I keep forgetting to get toilet paper. So I don't need something else high maintenance taking up my precious time.
(On a side note, I'm having meetings or get-togethers almost every day and I've developed a newfound respect for working moms--oh holy crap, how do you get it all done? My sister works a tough job, goes to school, raises two busy boys, plays all kinds of sports and runs marathons...I can barely go to meetings where they serve me food and don't really ask that much out of me except to show up, nod and smile. You go, ladies--you ROCK!).
Noko is the subject here and as usual, I'm getting way off track with the subject matter.
Hans was surprisingly easy to win over. There's an organization on base called PAWS that fosters cats and dogs. They had a bunch of kittens available, but they wanted $400 for each kitten...and that's for a feral, un-spayed/neutered kitten. The ones at the Japanese pet stores are running between $800-$3,000. Yes, that's right, THREE THOUSAND dollars...for what looks to me like your standard Minnesota farm kitten. I could understand that purebreds are more expensive, but at one store, the Himalayan was actually less than the barn-looking cat.
Anyway...we looked at some kittens at Livin last Friday and after seeing the price, Hans suggested we stop at PAWS when we got back on base. We headed back to the building that PAWS was in in 2006, everyone unloaded and just as we're about to walk in, the vet comes out the door. Turns out they were headed out to lunch, but asked if they could help.
We explained that we were looking for PAWS (turns out they have a new location).
--Were we looking for a cat? A dog?
--A cat.
--Well, it just so happens that we have a cat here that was a stray on the base.
They kindly invited us in and took us back to meet the cat, who...shocker...turned out to be Noko (are you shocked?). She was/is this lovely, tiny little 3-year-old girl. All microchipped and spayed, etc. Someone on base owned her up until about three months ago. The vet isn't sure if they ditched her. They claim that she ran away, but sadly, we have a lot of people here who ditch their animals rather than go through the work of getting them back home. Especially cats.
I'm trying to wrap this up, I swear. We explained that Hans and I have allergies and they asked us if we wanted to bring her home over the weekend--we'd be doing them a favor as they wouldn't have staff in to take care of her over the weekend.
So--just like that, we were bringing little Noko home. She was a little skittish the first night, but after the kids went to bed, she stole out from her hiding spot and jumped into my lap and started kneading away. She's getting better every day at tolerating love from the kids, but she's still more content to find a private little hidey-hole and stay there until the house quiets down a little. She's tiny, but very vocal and she has a voracious appetite. The only issue we've had with her is that she eats too quickly and has thrown up a few times. Luckily we have a lot of hard flooring here. We have a special bowl on the way that will force her to slow down--I imagine that when she was out on the lam, she may not have eaten every night.
I'm looking forward to having her interact with the kids more and seeing her playful side. I love having a little furry being in our lives that jumps up and snuggles in with us...and I find it adorable how well my Kitten and my kitten are getting along--they are a couple of snugglers.
Konnichi wa, Noko! Noko from Yoko!
Comments
How nice that you didn't have to pay the big fee and you actually rescued her!