About three weeks ago when I came back from my morning constitutional, I spotted what looked like a towel on the edge of the drainage ditch across the street from my house. I went over to take a look, and I saw that it was indeed a towel – with a tiny gray kitten crouched in its folds.
Keanu & Me
The kitten hissed when I reached to pick it up, but I could tell it didn’t mean it. Being an old softie at heart, I took both the kitten and the towel across the street to my house and started the adoption process. Mainly this meant giving the kitten a name. Since the movie Keanu had just opened, and since this kitten looked a lot like the one in the movie, I named it Keanu, even though she turned out to be female. For two days, we got along just fine.
At the close of the second day I was closing the shutters in my dining room and happened to look across the street at the ditch. I saw what looked like another little kitten. I hoped it was a squirrel, but I thought I’d check. Sure enough, it was another gray kitten. And not far away was a ginger one. I hadn’t looked in the culverts when I picked up Keanu, and I suppose these two must have been hiding there. I took them to my house, and Keanu seemed happy to see them. They were dehydrated and quite hungry, but they recovered quickly. I named them Ginger (aka Li’l Tom) and Gilligan, and the adoption process was complete.
Gilligan & Me
In a couple of days I went from having no animal companions to having three small kittens. This was more of an adjustment for me than it was for them. They purr a lot and seem very happy to be sowing havoc and wreaking destruction throughout my formerly quiet dwelling. I took them to visit the vet, so they’ve now had some shots and are scheduled for neutering (borrowing from Gary Larsen, I told them it was “tutoring”; I didn’t want to worry them).
As you can see in the photos, they are clearly of high intelligence and of the best character. They are also driving me crazy, but it was just a short trip.
Bill Crider
Bill Crider is the talented, and slightly cracked, author of a over 50 books ranging from mystery to western to horror. He is best known for the award-winning Sheriff Dan Rhodes series. He is a life-long resident of Texas. You can learn more from his website or have a hell of a lot of fun with his blog (which talks about this, that and all things weird), which should be in the favorites of every single one of you! You can also find him, and his merry trio of kittens, on Facebook. SURVIVORS WILL BE SHOT AGAIN, the 13th book in the Sheriff Dan Rhodes series, is due out on August 9th.
