HOBART HAS A BIRTHDAY

 Our only kitty, Hobart, just had his birthday a few days ago.  We don't know the date for sure...but we celebrate it as November 27th.  We know he has a lot of fans here on the blog, and we understand, he's quite handsome.  We only have THREE kitten photos.  Sigh.  Smartphones weren't around and the phone pictures we did take were lost in upgrading phones.  The three we could find are posted here for the first time.

Here is his story (along with some pics then and now).

In January of 2006, we had go to visit my Mom who had just gotten home from the hospital.  We visited with her and then stopped for dinner on the way home.  We got up to leave when we finished but 2nd Man's cousin called to chat.  Since we were not yet in the car, we figured it was a good time to visit.  After spending about 30 minutes on the phone, we left the restaurant and decided to stop at a grocery store to pick up a few things.  As we were walking in, I passed a woman who I overheard asking someone else "how long has he been stuck in there? He's so cute".  

I stopped and asked and turned out, a little black kitten had been stuck inside a propane exchange rack outside the front of the store.  We went over and the guy said they were waiting on someone with a key but they weren't sure when they would get there.

We looked and there was a cute little face meowing and looking up at us.  I pulled on the door/gate thing and held it away from the bottom as best as I could and 2nd Man got down on the ground and stuck his arm in the space I created and he pulled out a little furry black kitten.

He held him up and said "now what?"

We already had two cats at home Sydney and Brisbane but of course we decided to bring him home and decide what to do later.  

I drove and 2nd Man held him on his lap and he sat there purring and looking around.  We got home and gave him a bath in the sink.  For a bit, we thought he might have been white since so much black was coming off, ha.  No telling how long he had been roaming the streets.  We got him all fluffy and kept him in the guest room with a small litter pan and some wet food to keep him separate from the other two.  

They were curious.  

It didn't take long...after spending most of the night playing with him, the next morning we decided he would be part of the family.  What's three if you already have two?  Right?  Ha!

This is the first picture ever taken after he got home.  I mean, come on, look at that face!  He was certainly comfortable on that blanket, making himself right at home the moment he got in.

We took him to the vet, he was healthy and got his shots.  We asked his age and they said he was about 7 weeks old so we counted backwards and that put him being born around Thanksgiving.  We chose the 27th since it was after the holiday.

With his clean bill of health, we introduced him to the other two.  It went well.

 

Sydney was like "another kitten?  Seriously?  I already went through this with Brisbane a few years back!"

It didn't take long before they were a band of brothers...especially when it was cold, ha!

Drinking water is something he's always enjoyed.  He LOVES his water.  Here's a funny picture, see the bowl above?  We have two of them the same style, same size, a yellow one and an orange one...above is the yellow one and below is the orange one.

He's definitely all grown up!

So that's how Hobart came to live with us.  We think about that phone call with 2nd Man's cousin.  If we had said we'd talk later, or didn't talk as long, we wouldn't have been walking in the store at the exact moment someone mentioned the kitten stuck in the machine and we would not have this wonderful kitty.

He is 18 now!

In human years, that's 88 to 90. He moves a little slower now, but really, he looks great for his age. The picture above was taken a few weeks ago. We think he's a pretty good looking 'old man', ha.

We have been asking Hobart, now that he's 18, where he wants to go to college, if he's going to move out on his own, has he registered to vote, etc, LOL!

We laugh but also understand that he has entered the twilight of his life.  As much as we all want them to live forever, we know that we must enjoy all the time we have with him and so we give him the best life we can.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOBART!

#notspoiled