A New Addition to Our Family

Meet Ruby, our new kitten :) On Monday night (the 26th) on our way home from running some errands, my brother and I noticed this little baby on the street (she actually crossed right in front of me as I was driving and I managed to stop just in time to avoid hitting her!) I screeched to a very sudden, abrupt stop sending all our purchased goods that were in the back seat flying forward. I pulled over and asked my brother to get out of the car to look and listen for any signs of a mom and/or littermates. Nothing :( It seemed she was all alone and very scared. He scooped her up and got back into the car with her. We brought her home and set up a comfy place where she could hang out until we got her checked out by the vet. We gave her some food from our other kitty (Midnight, a beautiful, 18-year-old domestic shorthair) and she quickly devoured it. Yesterday, we took her to the vet to have her cleaned up and on the road to recovery. She has some pretty nasty wounds on her legs and chest as if she was attacked by another animal while she was out on her own. We purchased the appropriate medications for her (apparently her wounds were infected and she had a slight fever) and already she is doing SO MUCH better!! She is starting to act like a normal, happy, playful, and snuggly kitten, not the poor frightened little baby we picked up just two nights ago.

Ruby has now officially been introduced to my baby, Velma and my brother's other cat, Midnight. I think it will take some time for Midnight to get used to her; right now she only sniffs her and walks away. However, Ruby LOVES Velma (smart kitty, hehe)!! She follows her around and purrs loudly as she rubs her tiny little body all over Velma. Velma tolerates her for the most part, she just gets a little annoyed with her following her around so much :) I'm sure soon they'll get along just fine, as do Midnight and her.

We looked at the pros and cons of keeping her and debated whether we should or not. I decided to let my brother keep her. After all, I think she might have been a gift to him from our mom who passed away exactly one year before we found this kitty (January 26, 2008). My mom knew how much my brother loves cats and how much he wanted a kitten, I guess she decided to send her little boy a gift on this very sad and hard date. Of course, picking out a name was easy: Ruby, our mom's name :)