I haven't mentioned anything...but, well...



Nick and I have been approved to adopt a kitten—by this time next week, our family will have grown to three, and I'm misty. I've wanted this for a very long time.



Nick called about a Maine Coon kitten at a shelter in Iowa just this past Saturday. I shied away from the task. My inquiries have all ended the same way: the kitten is no longer available. Imagine my surprise when Nick's luck went a much reversed direction. We completed an application and have been waiting to see if we would be approved.

Yesterday, we hit a pet store to purchase the odds and ends every home needs for a kitten...the bare essentials and "daycare toys" until you learn the personality of your pet and can really put yourself in debt. We discussed names last night until at one point reality hit, and I swallowed hard before reminding that we weren't approved yet and that we're assuming too much...and that my hopes are impossibly high.

I won't do our new addition the injustice of posting a grainy foster home picture, but I will tell you that she is beautiful and that we will love her very, very much. (And you know that, given a visually appealing subject, I'm not at all opposed to letting the inner shutterbug take hold.)

Meanwhile, I will entertain you with an old picture, circa January 2005, of my childhood pet, Friskey. Friskey came into my life as baby, a gift for my 9th birthday, and still lives with my father. A month shy of 17, I haven't had the heart to disturb the security of the only home she's ever known (though I'd steal her in a heartbeat if I thought this would not be so). Friskey has been adorning my desktop for the last week, and I've no doubt that her lovely pettability (which comes through so plainly in photograph) is to blame for our renewed efforts toward adoption. Thanks, puss...you were the first, and you'll always be the best: