Tuesday Tale: Vesper

Well, kitties, there was a bit of drama in our family while I was away, and I have saved the story for today.

This is my new family member, Vesper.

You may remember Holly and Ivy's Gotcha Story. Vesper's is very similar. Mommy and Grandmama and Grandpapa and Uncle Sean went to visit family the Saturday before Christmas . . . the same family that mommy adopted Holly and Ivy from. As soon as they got out of the car, they saw a little black kitty with big gold eyes standing in front of the door. The lady of the house had been feeding it for about two months, but for some reason the man of the house would not let the lady let the black kitty inside, so the kitty had been living outside, even in the cold, bad weather.

Well, you can bet that Grandmama picked that kitty up and toted it inside! Grandmama and Mommy and Uncle Sean all took turns holding her, and she snuggled up and purred and purred and purred. Then she got down and found the kitty food and ate and ate and ate. Then she got snuggled some more.

When it was time to go, everyone felt bad for the black kitty, and Grandmama could tell that Uncle Sean really wanted to take the black kitty home. Grandmama told Uncle Sean he could have her, and he picked her up and put her in the car and home they all went. Uncle Sean named her "Vesper," because he said it meant "twilight."

Vesper LOVED Uncle Sean right away . . . especially his electric blanket! She slept with him all night and spent most of her time in his room. She felt safest when she was with him. My grandparents and uncle already have two kitties, Sebastian and Leon, and a husky named Mickey. (Plus a malamute named Alyeska, but she doesn't come upstairs in the main house anymore.) Mickey adores kitties and was excited about Vesper, but Vesper wasn't used to dogs, especially big ones, and would hiss at him and run away.

Since Vesper had never really been an indoor kitty, she couldn't seem to understand the use of a litterbox. Leon and Sebastian are both indoor/outdoor kitties (unlike me and my sisters), so Grandmama thought it best to go ahead and introduce her slowly to the outdoors. She let her out to explore (and potty) in their fenced-in backyard. Vesper would creep outside and potty, then run back in right away. That is, until the day after Christmas. Grandmama let her out like she had been doing, and then Vesper disappeared.

Grandmama and Uncle Sean hoped Vesper would come back when she got hungry, but she never did. Finally, they hoped for the best. A lot of kids had been playing outside with their new toys, and they knew Vesper liked people. Maybe a child had found her and brought her home and another family had adopted her, making her an indoor kitty so she couldn't find her way back home.

Over a week passed and everyone lost hope that Vesper would return.

Never doubt miracles, kitties!

This past Sunday night, my Grandmama was in the basement when two young boys came up to her and asked "Is this your kitty?"

It was Vesper!

They explained that they had been outside playing and had heard a kitty crying in the empty house next to my grandparents. They found a way inside through a window, and found Vesper in the chimney. They rescued her and set out to find her family, and succeeded!

It is a mystery on where Vesper has been for over 11 days. She is very skinny and very, very hungry, but Grandmama is sure she would have been in much worse shape had she been trapped without food or water for almost two weeks. Regardless of where she was, our family is very happy to have her back.

Vesper is so hungry that she is eating anything. Last night she had spaghetti. You can tell that she enjoyed it . . . she even had some on her little chin!