We have a beta fish. In a bowl. In the living room. Set low on an old (groovy, decorative) suitcase.  Maybe this means we like fish? No, this means we like our cats….who use this bowl as their water dish. Sometimes it looks like Jacob-the-fish is going to swim right in to a cat’s mouth. But, so far, he hasn’t.

Anyway…I’m watching Percy Jackson the 1/2 Persian cat drink around the fish and I can’t help but smile remembering how he came to live at our home. I’m sure you’d like to hear the story? It’s another one of those “dreams coming true” stories that I like so well.

November 2010 Joe had to go to the hospital to have major colon surgery. The week before his scheduled hospital visit, the kids and I were feeling sad and I was racking my brain for something positive for us to do, The phone rang.  It was the local Animal Shelter asking if we could foster some kittens since the “cat room” was full and some cats were going to have to be put down.  I giggled/said, “Be right there!” while waving the kids to the van.

A few minutes later when we walked in to the cat room there was a very ordinary-looking (Joe likes to call him the “extraordinary ordinary cat”) climbing the bars of his cage and screeching. I thought, “That looks like trouble!” but when we took Cyrus out of the cage he instantly started purring. A few days later when my youngest daughter Lydia said, “Mom, Cyrus is better than Disney World! He’s ALL I want for Christmas!”, we adopted him…and we’ve never regretted it.

That’s all well and good…but we have *two* daughters. (Do you see where this is going?) Anya, our older daughter, seeing her sister’s cat-joy, started dreaming about the gorgeous black and white kitten Santa was going to bring *her* for Christmas. Oh. Dear. Me! Where was I going to find a black and white kitten in the middle of winter? Anya didn’t stop talking, dreaming, visualizing–and, yes, praying–for that kitten, and I became more and more at a loss on how this was going to happen for her. I searched the animal shelters and websites…I talked to friends….and it was getting closer and closer to Christmas. There were only a few days left….

…And then I remembered.

I remembered my friend who–a few months earlier–had been selling Persian kittens (for way more than I could afford!). In desperation, I called. My friend laughed….”Oh, Kirsten, we have the cat for you.” There was one cat left….he was 1/2 Persian so he cost less than a WalMart toy…and he had just been named a few days before: “Jackson” (our last name). I raced to their home….not even asking what he looked like…walked through their doors and there was Jackson…a gorgeous white and black kitten….