Echo

A few weeks ago, we went kitten hunting.

Went to 4 animal shelters. No calicos or torties. Wow.

We called one other shelter, and found out they had 5. They promised to call us back after our vacation.

So, we went on a 10-day trip to Arizona. Yawn.

When we came back, we got no calls. So.... we called them. No answers!

Sadly, we went to one of the shelters we visited before.. and there was THE most beautiful calico kitten that Ive ever seen. She had dark golden stripes over her gold splotches, and black spots over her grey ones.

But....

She and her littermates were sick with upper respitory infection, and wouldn't be availiable for a week. I was devistated that the beautiful kitten, Perciphiny was her name, couldn't be mine, as I had a deadline for when I could get one. See, I'm moving next month, so it's now or never for a kitty! My mom felt so bad, she brought me to the local petsmart, where they have kittens from non-public shelters on display.

And then I saw her.

A beautiful black kitten brindled with golden speckles and splotches. She had greenish-yellow eyes and one cream-colored toe. I dashed over to her cage and thanked the heavens for her. I had doubted I'd find another kitten like Perciphiny, a kitten which, at the time, I had thought to be the perfect one who could never be replaced by another. But Perciphiny wasn't destined to be my friend. No, instead, it would be sweet, gentle, playful Marie, wrestling with her brother Mo (who I almost adopted, as well! He was an adorible cream colored sweetie with blue eyes and a white diamond on his forehead) who would catch my heart. Three anxious hours later, I was able to hold her, play with her, and stoke her in the cat room. Sweet Marie was the perfect balance of loving (she never struggled when you held her!) and playful (you should have seen her leaping for a feather wand!)

If you yell in the mountains, your voice is amplified beautifully, and you fall in love with the sound of it. Such a musical tune, so smooth, delicate. But it dies away, and you turn your back, dissapointed by the end of a beautiful moment. But then you hear another noise, even more beautiful, which keeps on going. The echo.

Marie is the echo of Perciphiny.

So when they asked if I was going to rename her, there was but one name to pick.

Her name would be Echo.

I get to pick her up at 2:00 PM tommorow. I have no picture to show you yet, but the shelter she's from took a picture of her litter as tiny baby..

She's the middle one on the bottom. Cute, huh? The cream one behind her is Mo. You can easily see why I almost adopted him, too!