Welcome to the Family, Pumpkin!

We added someone new to the family!  Say hello to Pumpkin.

We have had an orange kitty sized hole in our hearts since Topher died a year ago and have been on the hunt for the perfect orange and white cat.  We had the best experience with an orange tabby - Topher was so lovey and so sweet for 15 years.

I know four cats is a lot, but Penny and Pearl have each other.  They are sisters and buddies.  And Mr. Mittens always gets left out.  We were determined to find him a brother to play with and so far so good.  They're becoming buddies!  There was a lot of hissing at first and now it's just a lot of jumping and chasing.  And so far four cats seems just the same as three.

We visited the local adoption spots and usually came up empty handed.  Until one Sunday, we walked into Petsmart to find a foster kitty that fit our wish list perfectly.  His name was Howl, medium fur and he was about 11 weeks old and he was so sweet.  We put in an application for him as soon as we got home and had to wait to see if we were picked to adopt him.  His foster mom said no one had applied for him yet.  Several days later I got an email saying we'd been approved, but that didn't mean they were holding a pet for us.  It was very confusing.  So I made some phone calls and it looked like they would match us with Howl.  A day or two later they called to confirm and said I could pay over the phone.  Whew!  That was stressful.  We got everything scheduled and got the call to pick him up about 10 days after we met him at our local humane society.

I'm so thankful he was a foster cat so he was very used to being around people and other pets.  We hurried home with him after school and his paws have barely touched the floor since.  Everyone loves him!

Meeting Pumpkin: We were so surprised to get to hold and play with Pumpkin at Petsmart.  When we adopted there before from a different agency, they wouldn't let us hold him.  Howl was so sweet and seemed perfect for our family!  We started brainstorming name ideas for him right away.

Kevin was playing in a golf tournament this day.  I texted him a picture of the kitty and his response made our day!  Get him!  We wished we could have taken him home, but we'd have to wait several days to make it official.

10 days later we got to pick him up from the humane society.  Hooray!

 

The boys passed his carrier around the car and after just a few minutes Pumpkin was purring.

Welcome home, Pumpkin!!  We talked through a list of boy cat names, but the kids were set on Pumpkin since we were adopting him in the Fall.  He gets called a mix of Pumpkin, Pumpkin Spice, Pumpkin Pie and Sweet Pumpkin.

He's already found cozy spots all over the house.

Sit on the couch and Pumpkin will join you.

Leo sings him lullabies.

And we did Pumpkin touch down pushups for the Notre Dame game.

He's the sweetest addition to our family!  If you ever get the chance to adopt a foster cat, do it!