Behind the Wall

I got a phone call yesterday morning from my landlord asking how old a cat we were looking for because I had told her that we were going to possibly go after Christmas to adopt a kitty. I told her that we would probably be looking for a 2-3 year old. She said a stray had kittens in her husband's boat that he's been working on in the garage, and that she would just dispose of them. I didn't want that, so I called the rescue league. Unfortunately there was no room at the inn, so I started trying to find foster networks who would take the kitties in. It was at this point that my landlord called and said the mother cat must have moved the kittens in the middle of the night after being disturbed by her husband last night. Relieved, I went on with my day...until 2:00.

She called again telling me she found 2 kittens. They were hiding in the sleep area of the boat under a flattened cardboard box. She got in, got one, put it to the side, and then went in to get the second one. By the time she turned around, the first one was gone. (After finding Mom cat awhile later in the same spot, we believe that the first kitten must have found Mom hiding, and Mom took it away). She told me she had a little gray tiger cat. I still had no place to take the cutie, so I called my vet and made an appointment. He tested negative for the big feline baddies...Feline Leukemia and FIV. He's about 4-6 weeks old and 1 pound. The vet said he's rather healthy aside from a few fleas. The minute that credit card was swiped, he was ours. ;) I was talking to the vet assistant about names. My landlord suggested "Skipper" since he was born in a boat, so we were thinking of nautical names. The assistant looked at him and said, "Captain Jack Sparrow." Well, we loved it. He's "Captain Jack" for short (which is another character we love from Doctor Who) or "Jack" for shorter (which is Marcus' favorite character from Nightmare Before Christmas)...so it's a win-win-win situation. :)

So, we always figured Julius would put a kitty in our path...I guess he decided this would be a good time.