Dailypost Weekly Photo Challenge: One

Apparently I needed some sorting out in my mind what One means. One for me sounds so special, that amongst a number to choose from, there is one that stands out.

So for this week’s challenge, I’ve picked Pixie as one, the One. Before her there was another kitten I saw online that I fell in love with but someone adopted her immediately. Mother was adamant that we have only one cat. She said Sissi would feel lonely, she’d need another kitten to play with.

Sissi was given to me by a co-worker who’s mother-in-law had cats that weren’t spayed. They kept giving away multitude of cats until the shelters refused to accept them anymore. So this time around, I decided we’d adopt from a shelter.

My search brought me online. I was disappointed when I didn’t get the kitten. I thought I would never see another cat like her. It was silly then that I was looking at cats for their looks and appeal to me.

A week later, they posted Pixie. She has a very close resemblance to the first one I saw but I didn’t realize how tiny she was when we went to pick her. We drove for 4 hours each way to Lansing, Michigan.

When we got there, the Cape Cod house of the shelter had hundreds (maybe that’s an exaggeration) but there seemed to be cats everywhere. All kinds, all sizes. And the house reeked of animal smell.

Pixie was on a cat tree along with other 4 cats. She had a forlorn look in her face, like she was lost and sullen. And I could fit her on the palm of my hands.

New to adoption it suddenly dawned on me that the animals were left to their own devices. The lady who was their caretaker smoked maybe because she herself couldn’t stand the smell. In the car Pixie smelled so bad that we had to stop to wipe her with bath cloth I bought at the pet store before our trip. But it hardly helped. So as soon as we got home, I gave her a bath which she didn’t refuse. Maybe she herself couldn’t stand her smell either.

The tiny kitten though was filled with spunk. I tried isolating her in the laundry room but she always managed to find a way out. Just like in her long car trip, she cried continuously when we kept her in the guest room. When finally I let her out after 2 days, despite the advise of experts to keep them away from other cats for a week, she managed to keep her stand with Sissi. Sissi ignored her and swiped her tail at her, sometimes hissed at her. Pixie was not deterred. She followed her around.

Now they are the best of friends and if not for their colors, you would think they came from the same mother.