Christmas came to us at a super crazy time, in December of 2017. Romeo was recovering from one of his cancer-related surgeries. We were getting ready for the holidays and my dad's visit. And as soon as Romeo was finished with his "confinement" and recuperation, Maarten had a life or death incident that required emergency surgery and 10 days in the hospital, and then the same confinement/recuperation that his brother Romeo just dealt with. In the middle of all of this, James went to go hang the Christmas wreath on the front door and there, in a patch of sunshine on our welcome mat, slept a small black kitten. Mind you, at the time we lived on almost 8 acres out in the country, way up on a very steep hill, surrounded by heavy woods (yes this was my Tennessee dream house that we just left) and we were surprised to find her. Of course, up and down the country road we lived on there were several farms with barns, so we assumed she was a kitten that wandered away from one of those barns. We put her photo on a flyer and delivered one to each neighbor, but no one claimed her. In the beginning we kept her in our mud room, where she stayed warm and dry and well-fed. Eventually we decided to keep her, and James named her Christmas for obvious reasons.
Christmas is extremely loving and affectionate, and she loves to sleep in your lap. She loves to be scratched and petted. Romeo had been James' "buddy" and Christmas has done an admirable job of filling that role. She's a good sized cat, at about 11 pounds. She's very high energy and loves to run around and climb, and for a long time she was a little too aggressive with Maarten when it came to play time. Maarten was starting to slow down because of severe arthritis in all four of his legs, as well as a deformed hip. Although I could tell he enjoyed playing with Christmas, she pounced on him to the point where he couldn't physically defend himself very well. I know she didn't intend to hurt him, but I had to constantly break them apart. Romeo passed away at the end of April in 2019 and by October we had packed up and moved here to Virginia.
About a week after we moved here, I first saw Pippa! She was at a PetSmart adoption center, and I just fell in love with her. Of course I always look at the kitties there, and I always fall in love. I would go see her once a week in her little cage there. I kept talking about her nonstop to James, hoping to wear him down! I sold him on the fact that Spider and Maarten were getting old, they were very much senior kitties and I'm realistic, they won't be around forever. Christmas is still young and she really needed someone to play with and someone to grow up with. I thought adopting Pippa was a great solution.
Even though we're known for having black cats, General was a tuxedo and I've always wanted another one. General was such a big personality, but when I started going into the adoption center to actually "meet" Pippa, she seemed super shy and scared. I wasn't sure she would fit in with our three at home. But I had time to think about it. A few weeks after we moved here, we went on a cruise so I knew I didn't want to bring her into a new home then simply leave. I told the rescue group that I wanted to adopt her and that if she was still available once we got home, I would come get her. Luckily she was! Originally I thought she was a kitten, because she was a tiny thing at only 5 pounds. I've never had a cat who weighed in the single digits! But it turns out that Pippa was 4 years old and had just given birth to a litter. The kittens had all been adopted but Pippa had been up for adoption for several months, with no interest. I don't know why!!! Look how pretty she is!
Pippa got her name from the staff of the rescue group, and I thought it was cute so I just kept it. They said she was already answering to it anyhow. And oddly enough, the only other cat I ever "kept" a previous name for was General. They named him that at the kitten rescue and asked us to keep it, so we did. Introducing Pippa into the household was a little bumpy, even though we did it slowly. She was a little scared, and the other cats were a little hissy. But it didn't last long, everyone is lovey dovey now. And although I got Pippa with the idea of her being a sister to Christmas, Pippa for some reason likes to play with Maarten! I don't know what it is, but the younger girls seem to favor him. But we're going through the same thing as before, Pippa plays rough and makes Maarten cry, so I have to break them up. But Maarten usually jumps right back in there, because he loves the wrestling too. She loves to chase him too, and I worry about that because he will zoom around and I know darn well that arthritis is hurting him (although he does take medication for it).
Pippa is VERY high energy and it turns out she is NOT shy at all. And even though she's a small cat, she's doubled in weight since coming to live with us. So she's a pudgy girl now, but it doesn't stop her from running around like crazy. She has a very funny little squeak instead of a meow. And just two weeks ago I started her own Instagram account @pippa_dippa_doo (my nickname for her) and she has almost 900 followers as of today. I almost called her account "hey there's Pippa!" because it's what I say every time I see her. It's been crazy because it grew so quickly, and I like to respond to all comments. But she's so cute and so photogenic, I couldn't stop taking pictures of her. She needed to have her own page! I will say, I think James is utterly in love with her as well, and I know he's glad we adopted her.
I'm also glad that we are able to open our home to kitties in need, and I know they'll always have love and food and toys and medical when they need it. They do give us so much joy. Since I'm home all day anyhow, it's good to have them with me. And now that James comes home every day, we have fun in the evenings watching their antics and having them come to bed with us at night.
SANDY
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