You may have seen on my Facebook page that we adopted a kitten a couple of weeks ago. Honestly, it was inevitable. Our daughter LOVES cats. We knew we would get one, but honestly we didn’t plan on getting one so soon! I knew the decision would ultimately be my husband’s because he had a “criteria” that had to be met! haha Well, we were in another town getting my husband’s canoe registered (funny story – apparently if you use a little trolling motor on your canoe it has to be registered as a boat in the state of Texas. Who knew?). There was a PetSmart there, and our pup was in desperate need of new nail clippers. She’s a Cane Corso (Italian Mastiff), so you can’t really just pick up nail clippers anywhere because they have to be the heavy-duty kind! I knew when we were in there we’d HAVE to go look at the cats for adoption because we always do! They had quite a few kittens, which is rare for the closest store. We even decided to look at a couple! Well, our new kitten, Bartholomew was THE ONE. He was very laid back, sweet, not phased by the kids, and he passed my husband’s “tests.” I was actually walking around the store with the little guy more than seeing the kittens, so I was surprised when I was told “this is the one!” Wow! I was excited because whether I admitted it or not I did want a cat! 🙂 Another special characteristic of our new kitten – he was born with only one eye. It was actually a genetic defect that his mother had as well. He’s only 4 months old, and I don’t think he even knows that it’s not “normal” since he was born that way! It definitely doesn’t seem to affect how he interacts with the world!

So, our new kitten came home with us that day! 🙂 We changed his name because the one he had was, well, silly. haha We named him Bartholomew after the famous pirate “Black Bart”/Bartholomew Roberts – my husband’s great, great, great, etc. uncle! (OK, that’s a totally different blog. I know almost everybody with the last name of Roberts claims to be related to him, but my husband has The family Bible that is always passed to (and signed by) the youngest male in that generation, and his name is definitely on there! Cool, right!?) Anyway, he fit right in at home! He took to Caprice (our pup) right away (though she was a bit nosy and jealous), and he does great with the kids! We have to remind the kids to be gentle often, but he does so wonderfully with them! He definitely is “the one” for our family! So awesome! And we got one of those self-cleaning litter boxes – best investment EVER! LOL Everything has just been absolutely perfect!

One thing that I didn’t expect is the number of people (including the foster mom who called to follow up a few days later) who have said we are “awesome” or “sweet” or whatever adjective they chose for adopting a one-eyed kitten. I honestly don’t know how to respond. As you can probably gather from my post – we didn’t choose him because he has one eye. It actually didn’t affect our decision at all! It was his personality that won us over! He truly is the perfect cat for our family! So then I feel kind of guilty because I feel like I was supposed to be the “hero” for adopting a one-eyed cat when in reality we were still using the same standards we were using on adopting ANY cat. We do think it makes him wonderfully unique, of course, but it didn’t persuade us to adopt him! So yes, it always feels nice to adopt a pet, but I’m not taking any extra credit for adopting an animal with a unique birth defect that doesn’t at all affect him! I feel like more of a “hero” for adopting a 125lb mastiff (well, she was only like 30lbs and a puppy when we rescued her) who was abused and put in a crate after being taken away from her mom at 4 weeks old. Now SHE has some issues! Poor pup! We’re continually working with her, though, but her anxiety is through the roof – particularly around men!
So yes, I do always encourage people to adopt their pets! Yes, it is an awesome feeling when you do knowing you’ve given a home to a pet that may not otherwise have found one! There are SO MANY that need loving homes! But I’m not taking any EXTRA credit because the truth is – he IS the perfect kitty for us, and he fits right in here and it wouldn’t matter to me whether he has one eye or if he had 2, what color he was, etc. He is the sweetest little kitten, and I’m so glad we could give him a home! 🙂