Hmmm…. Where do I start?! First of all, we've been seeing this kitty around the neighborhood for quite a few months now. He is a very sweet and friendly orange tabby. Although not exactly fair to the cat with no-name… or, "The Cat" we named him "Thompson". He is really one of the sweetest cats I have ever met. Here's the story: Monday, January 5th, 2009: it was a cold, breezy Monday night when Thompson came to our porch. We were making dinner and from the kitchen we heard these strange crying meows coming from outside. Low and behold, he was back. We knew he was around but hadn't seen him for about a month or two. This time, he had a bloody red patch on the side of his face. =( We shared some of Cat's food with him and put a warm bed and blanky on the porch in case he needed a place to stay warm for the night. (Our hearts wanted to bring him in but unfortunately, our minds couldn't exactly agree on it.) We really didn't know what to do because we both have really big hearts when it comes to animals. We kept pacing around the house stressing ourselves 
out by talking about our different options while Thompson slept on his bed on the porch (and ate every morsel of food!). I told Matt that night that instead of us getting all worked up about it we would just leave it up to God and he would help us make the right decision. (I wanted to ease Matt's mind because I knew how much he was worried about him - he's such an animal lover… it's so sweet.) The next day Matt called me at work and said he felt guilty for not bringing in the orange kitty. We both knew he was in need of veterinary care and most likely a warm, loving home too. That night we put food out on the porch and called for him but he never came back. We really thought we weren't going to see him for another month or so. The next night (Wednesday, Jan. 7th) he did come back! Either God answered our prayers or he must have taken a liking to us or both. (I'm not quite sure yet why God wanted us to go broke though! $250 in Vet appointments later... and more to come...) I'm sure there's a lesson there. Anyway, we brought him in and made him a kitty haven in the basement with yummy, 
chicken and fish flavored morsels, fresh, cool water, warm blankets to lay on and a few toys to bat around. Can it really get much better than that? He was one happy (and lucky) cat that night! By Friday Matt had taken some time off work to take him to see the Vet. We found out the poor kitty needed antibiotics (for the cut on his face), worm medicine, flea medicine, a variety of vaccines and a plain ol'darn good checkup! Niether the Vet nor us are exactly sure what happened to his face? He could have gotten hit by a car and slid across the ground, or, gotten into a fight with an another animal? I'm mean really we have no idea where he's been or what happened to him but we do know he definitely needed that checkup. The Vet did say cats can travel as far as 10 miles or more! Over the next couple of days we came home from work and took turns spending time with him in the basement. See, here's the reason he is in the basement: According to the Vet, there is a possibility he could have feline leukemia or feline 
aids which could take 6 months to show up positive in a test if he would have gotten it say maybe from that cut on his face like if he got into a fight with another cat that had it or something like that. (It is actually more common than you think.) So, in order to protect black cat's health we got him vaccinated for feline leukemia but since it takes about two months for the vaccine to get through his system we need to keep them separated until at least March 13th. And trust me, i've been counting down the days! It is really hard to see Thompson living in the basement. He likes to snuggle us and be petted so we know he wants to be upstairs with us in the worst way! It's definitley a work in progess but eventually we will (hopefully) have two happy and healthy cats in our lives! They are both so different and have such unique personalities that they really are great additions to our little family of two. I posted some pics of Thompson. His cut is 
looking a lot better since the day I took the pics. The anitbiotics have really helped it heal. There is a part of us that worries he is someone else's pet and that that person misses him very much. We did check Craigslist and the News Stations' lost & found pet sections online. And the neighbor's house since we started seeing him about the same time she moved in. (But since we found out she is in jail right now she isn't getting him back even if he is hers.) On that note, we found nothing! I just hate the thought of knowing I possibly stole someone else's cat! Sounds silly - but true! But I also hate the thought of knowing that he had spent most of his time outdoors bearing the frigid, wintery weather conditions in need of medical care. Even though the basement isn't the warmest room in the house it has to be better than the cold, wet snow! At this point, we're just hoping for the best and looking forward to introducing black cat to his healthy, new orange brother =)lam
