Anastasia

On November 21, 2018, I was paying the man from whom we rent a storage unit.  He has many strays that hang out in the area.  While I was chatting with him, a small gray kitten approached me.  She had a respiratory infection and was a bit sneezy, but she was tiny.  While talking to the storage unit man, she fell asleep on my boot.  The storage unit man says she’s the runt, and was afraid she wouldn’t make it through the winter.  I was welcome to have her and give her a good home.

I knew I would be in Socorro the following day, and I thought I’d ask JoAnna about it, then maybe we’d pick her up the following day.  But then I thought about it, and realized what JoAnna would say.  I put her in the truck, brought her into Walmart and got her a small carrier.  Thankfully, the buses and trains let me bring her home.

I walked in the door and informed JoAnna that I had a small problem.  We named her Anastasia.

We took her with us to Thanksgiving dinner at my brother’s house, and she slept on JoAnna’s shoulder (11/22/18). 

We went shopping to find her a bed and kitten food.  She rode on my shoulder the entire time at Petsmart (11/23/18).

We took these photos on 11/24/18, as she slept in my arms.

We took her to the vet.  She weighed one pound, but was already four months old!

She was tiny enough that we couldn’t introduce her to our other cats yet.  We ended up taking her with us on our 2018 Christmas trip.  This one was taken 12/19/18.

We had a giant flood at our house while we were gone for Christmas.  Some of the plumbing froze and broke.  We ended up spending several days at JoAnna’s parents’ house while our house was being repaired.  The kitten sat with me the whole time (1/6/19).

On 3/2/19, I was really sick.  Anastasia came and sat on my chest while I slept to try to make me feel better.

She’s a good kitten, growing stronger.

She’s now full-grown, though very small.  We have not had to adjust her harness in a long time.

5/11/20

5/29/20

6/5/20

This cat loves to go for road trips.  We have a special box with a hammock built for her, and she rides in the car with us.  On this trip, we drove to southwestern Kansas.  6/20/20

6/21/20

6/26/20

7/6/20

7/9/20

7/21/20

7/23/20

7/29/20

2/23/22, riding in the Malibu on a return trip from Amarillo, TX.

Curled up sleeping on a pile of stuff, 2/27/22.

7/3/22: On top of the tower.

7/6/22: Best friends…for now.

7/6/22 Tolerating each other.

7/11/22: Getting scratches.

8/28/22: On the road back from Amarillo, TX.

10/15/22 Stack of kittehs somewhere in Utah

6/22/23: She got lost in the woods in Illinois after escaping the car. We caught her several hours later and now she’s resting. This was somewhere in Illinois or Kentucky.

10/19/23

12/9/23: They were both happy I was home from NC.