Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Project 365 - 01/04/10 Milo in the Window

Today's picture is of our youngest cat Milo in the window. He's an indoor only cat (as all cats should be for their health) but loves sitting in the windows or in front of the security door to enjoy the fresh air and watch the birds, bugs and activity outside. I love watching him observing and can see the intelligence in him as he observes the world around him. He's about 8 months old now and there's a story behind why we decided to adopt him.


My mother was visiting a family friend who had 2 cats that had just given birth to litters of 9 kittens each. Then, while exploring his farm, he found 2 more cats in the woodpile whose mother had been killed by a neighbor's dog. So he suddenly had 20 kittens to find homes for. My Mom and I have always been foster parents to animals, finding better homes for animals that others had given up on. My Mom was a veterinarian tech when I was young and only left the field after a severe accident left her unable to continue in her position. We always took in animals and found loving families for them. It was just part of my life and my childhood. So when I heard of these kittens I asked around the district to see if anyone wanted any of them. I had one friend who was willing to take four. She owns a small farm area and has the cats around to control rats and other vermin. My Mom made a trip and the next thing I knew I had four lovely kittens running around my house. We had named them Pearl (she had a grey circular spot on her head), Pearl's sister (obvious), woodpile (he was one of the ones found in the woodpile) and midnight (who is now our Milo). We already have a lovely Bengal Siamese named Marina who is 12 years old and had no intentions of adding to our family.

But as I observed midnight, I saw his intelligence. The defining moment was when we were outside and he decided to climb up the security door. While I had seen cats do this before, he then backed his way down to the ground...something I had never seen any cat do. I started noticing that no matter what trouble he got into (and that was often), he knew how to get out of it. That intelligence amazed me. He also was cuddly and loving. Glen and I discussed it, and decided to adopt him ourselves. Though it took a while for our pug Millie and Marina to adjust, we have never regretted the decision. He has added such joy and love to our lives, when we needed it most. By the way, his original name was Maida (after one of the Crow Girls from Charles DeLint's books - my favorite author) because he appeared to be a girl (even to my Mom who is used to sexing animals), when he developed secondary sex characteristics (testicles), we decided to change the name to Milo!

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