For Want Of A Kitten (Part 1)

January 26, 2010:

Its really hard to find a black kitten in this town. I mean, who knew, right? But what makes it worse is the fact that I'm trying to avoid Shelters and Pet Stores. Wow, that's a ridiculous pain in the arse.

Let me back up a tick.

So my friend Lainey is looking for a cat. Not just any cat, but an all black kitten. Seems simple enough. I figured that she would have this wrapped up and done in no time.

Except for the fact that shelters and Pet Stores are run by the criminally insane.*

*(Read "No Shelter From Stupidity" for that reasoning).**

**(Holy crap, I just referenced myself and mentioned an older post. 'Tis madness).

She goes through this, and I can see it takes a lot out of her to get shot down by these d-bags. So I start scouring the web for kittens that are being given away or sold. I tried googling for pet searching sites, which only led to more shelters and Pet Stores. Avoiding those quickly threw me into the two strangest sites that one usually quits and runs to. The Recycler and CraigsList. And the Recycler was quick to let me down.

But not CraigsList.

This site was quick to show me its abundance of kittens, puppies, water heaters, and questionable relationships with people. The kittens were many and varied, and seemed to be limitless in their quantities. The story changed drastically when I narrowed the search to black kittens. And the titles of each opportunity were strange to behold:

"kitens!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! $1 - (west covina)"
"kittenz need home, please give hom"
"kitty might die if you don't adopt DONT LET KITTY DIE!"

Yeah, none of that really helped. But I kept trying, and eventually I had a pool of possible cat providers. I contacted each one, and waited for a reply. But one cat in particular captured my imagination. It was this little cat that had one eye. Its eye had been surgically removed, but that didn't stop this little kitten from being adorable AND tough to boot. But even this little guy was up in the air.

Actually, as I went along finding more possible felines, I would send some info Lainey's way. I was just trying to make sure that she had something to look forward to. But any news can be misleading, because if you ain't got the kitten, you ain't got the kitten. So it all became a series of almosts and maybes. I'd call about a post, no replay. I'd send an e-mail, only to recieve silence. Very annoying.

Until I finally got some good news...

(What? A cliffhanger? Yep. Just trying something new)

Wait for Part 2.

-Nate