“Look at these.” Robert pointed to a group of four orange tabbies pouncing on one another like a bunch of tiger cubs.
Her heart almost burst at how cute they were, but she couldn’t imagine ripping one away from its littermates.
“Why is this one in here?” Robert asked the volunteer. “Why isn’t she with the adult cats?”
Amber turned to find a big calico cat regally resting in her enclosure, while a small black kitten swatted her swaying tail.
“She came in with just the one kitten,” the volunteer explained. “We tried separating them, but the little guy cried and cried, which made the momma very agitated. She recognized his voice and that he was in distress. So, we brought her in here with him.”
Amber frowned as she imagined the baby crying for his momma. She tried to get the kitten’s attention by sticking her finger in the air hole, but he was still playing with his momma’s tail. The big calico suddenly tackled the small kitten and held him between her paws. At first, it startled Amber, until she saw the momma start licking the kitty’s face and heard him purring over the rest of the noise in the room, and a warm feeling spread through her chest. “Isn’t that cute?”
Robert already had a huge smile on his face, which grew exponentially. “Yeah. It is.” He stuck his finger in one of the holes and pet the kitten’s tail. “He’s so soft.”
“Kittens usually are,” the volunteer said. “Do you want to hold him?”
Robert’s head snapped in her direction. “I can hold him?”
“Of course.” The volunteer opened the enclosure, and the kitten practically jumped in her arms and crawled onto her shoulder, purring like an outboard motor. She had to pry him off her sweater, and handed him to Robert, who looked like a first-time father holding his newborn.
“Hey, little guy.”
The kitten began to paw at his chest and rub his head along Robert’s chin.
Amber stroked the kitten’s black fur, which was as dark as night and smooth as velvet. “You’re adorable.”
While Robert doted on the kitten, who was trying to crawl up his chest, Amber’s attention when to the momma, who sat in her enclosure watching everything. “Hi, Momma.”
Without asking, the volunteer lifted the hefty calico and placed her in Amber’s arms. The cat immediately started kneading Amber’s sleeve, happy and content. “You’re a love. Where are her other kittens?”
“We don’t know,” the volunteer answered, with a lopsided frown. “Someone found her living under a bush with just the one.”
Amber gasped. “Under a bush? It’s January!”
“I know. Sadly, we’ll never know her backstory. All we know is that someone found her and her baby, fed them for a few days, and then brought them here.”
Amber’s eyes went to Robert, who looked as if his heart just broke, and she was sure she had the exact same expression on her face.
“Can we take them both?” he asked her, again with the pouty lip. “We can’t separate them.”
She slowly blinked at the kindhearted man in front of her, but she already made her decision. “Yeah. We can take both of them.”
Robert’s face lit up like someone just turned on a thousand-watt lightbulb. “We can?”
She nodded, too overwhelmed to speak.
“That’s wonderful,” the volunteer said. “Exactly the outcome we hoped would happen by putting the two together in the same space. I’ll tell the adoption coordinator to get the paperwork finalized.”
Two hours later, they were sitting in Amber’s living room with two hundred-and-fifty dollars’ worth of cat toys, beds, scratching posts, and supplies. A big calico sat in Amber’s lap, kneading her thighs, while a black ball of fluff climbed all over Robert.
“We need names,” Amber said. “Since that ball of energy seems to like you, why don’t you name him?”
“Really? Do you have any suggestions?”
“Tasmanian Devil comes to mind.”
Robert studied the solid black kitten with big yellow eyes who, at the moment, was climbing his arm like a tree. “Can we call him Panther? He looks like a panther. I’m sure it’s a name he’ll grow into too.”
Panther. It was perfect. “Hey, Panther.” She reached over and scratched his butt, which startled him, and he jumped a good foot in the air with his hair fuzzed out around him.
