Former Foster Friday - Visiting Isaac Arnold & Smedley

At the end of 2013, I fostered a group of kittens and their mother. There were originally seven in the litter and one crashed and died with what I am assuming was fading kitten syndrome.  He went to the hospital without a name so his paperwork had the initials of the hospital, so I quickly named him Smivick.  The rest of his siblings needed names so I proceeded to memorialise Smivick by giving his siblings names based on the letters in his name.  Isaac Arnold and Smedley were two of those kittens. Isaac was originally going to be Arnold - which was the name of a friend's chicken - and I could never get over calling him anything other than Isaac Arnold... so IA he became.

Isaac Arnold failed to grow and Smedley had some pretty horrific diarrhea so they needed more attention than the rest of the group.  When the rest of them made weight, I sent them back and kept these two for a little more time. They were quite bonded and I lamented the idea of sending them to the shelter to be adopted by people who would probably separate them and would never give me updates.  I posted on Fb several times hoping against hope I could find someone who would like a nice pair of matching kitties.  I really lucked out.

Anne and her mom Janet were about to 'come on the market' for some kittens.  My post landed on her feed (thank you Robin and Lanna) and communication happened and I agreed to 'hold off on bringing them back to the shelter' while they made preparations to adopt.  In December of 2013 the adoption happened. Both Anne and Janet invited me down to see them at any time, but for a multitude of reasons I never took them up on it... one reason pretty high up on that list would be that I feared I would steal IA and run away with him. He reminded me so much of my Em it hurt to let him go.

But time has passed and I have come to really appreciate how much Anne loves her kitties.  I was pretty sure I was safe (and Anne promised to frisk me before I left), so when I found myself only an hour from her house, I had to stop by.

I was both familiar and unfamiliar to them since it had been two and a half years since they had seen me. They both stayed in the room with me and were easily led into play.

The clicking of the camera caught their attention and they proceeded with the catscans. 

I nabbed each one for a snuggle and a kiss, which was not all that appreciated. Isaac Arnold even told me off, not that I blame him one bit. We spent the next hour chatting and watching the cats be cats. It was glorious. 

Apparently Isaac Arnold has become quite the artist, preferring to work with a cardboard medium. He enjoyed showing off his double box top creation and I admired his work which he appreciated.

Not wanting to make a pest of myself, I scheduled a limited amount of time for the visit and it was over WAY too soon. I was very sad to go and hope that it isn't another two and a half years before I make it back.