Personal Narrative: Siamese Cats

"No way," I shook my head. "We are NOT adopting another cat!"

"But she's a Siamese," my husband begged. "You know I've always wanted a Siamese cat."

"And you know I've always hated Siamese cats," I argued back, reminding my husband of my girlfriend's two Siamese cats who were not only mean, but had the most obnoxious meow I'd ever heard in my life. "Not only that but we do NOT need another cat!"

When I married my husband I had no idea he was as big of a sap as I was with animals. It wasn't unusual for us to head to the pet store to check out the latest available adoptions, or make our way to the pound. The trouble was, we could never leave empty handed. Turtles, fish, guinea pigs, parakeets-- but mostly cats. I'd

always heard that cats are like potato chips. You couldn't stop at one and it's true--at least in our case.

It got so bad, that we promised ourselves we wouldn't listen to our local radio during the "pet adoption" time, and yet we did--every week.

And now they not only had a Siamese up for adoption, but she was a pregnant Siamese

cat.

Well aware of my weakness when it came to cats, I explained to my husband that one more cat might be okay, but a pregnant cat and her kittens would overrun our home. But that pleading look in my husband's eyes started wearing my defenses down. He knew my weaknesses.

Finally we agreed that if the pound would help us find homes for the kittens after the mother weaned them, we'd think about it. When the shelter offered their help, that did it! There was no discussion. My husband grabbed a cat carrier, the car keys and said, "Are you coming or not?" I had no choice.

He was so afraid that someone else would get her before we did that he dropped me off at the front door so I could start adoption procedures.

Malti was beautiful, classy, affectionate, and her meow wasn't irritating at all. It was love at first sight.

A few weeks later she gave birth to five gorgeous kittens,three beautiful tabbies and two pure black puffs of sweetness. It was a wonderful experience for the children and a lot of fun having kittens scampering around. Of course we loved every single one of those precious baby kittens, loving and cuddling them and watching them grow.

And so once Malti weaned her kittens we decided we'd rather screen people ourselves. I'm sure any animal lover knows how it goes. We didn't want them living in any old home.

We placed an ad in the paper and had many calls.

Of course, the adorable, black kitties sold first. We actually understood their appeal as we had adopted a black kitten a few month earlier.

In fact, we'd thought of keeping one of them, but talked ourselves out of it.

That left two males and one female Tabby--beautifully marked kittens. At last a woman called who wanted a male Tabby, but when she arrived she decided she'd take the female too, so the two kittens could keep each other company while growing up. Even though she begged and pleaded we turned her down, explaining that the remaining brother and sister had already found a home.

"I'd be happy to buy it back from them," she exclaimed, even though we'd given the kittens away for free.

"That won't work," I replied, explaining that we had fallen in love with the pair and had decided they belonged with us.

With all our other cats frolicking around, I doubt she understood our need for more, but she gathered her kitten and left.

Not counting Malti, we felt pretty proud of ourselves for only keeping two of her kittens, when in reality we wanted the whole litter. Yes, cats are like potato chips for sure. You can't stop at one, or two, or three,

or.....