Meet Vivienne! Aka: Vivi, Vivistein, Fluffy Butt, Baby Vivs, Little Angel Kitten... My baby. My husband and I adopted little Vivienne about five months ago from the San Diego Humane Society. She was only one and a half months old and weighed just a little over two pounds at the time.
On the actual Humane Society website there are profiles of each animal available for adoption. They update it daily to introduce new arrivals and show when pets have already been adopted. I of course had certain criteria for my future kitten (medium to long hair, female). I had been looking for weeks for the perfect one but to my dismay as soon as I would find one online, the next thing I knew it had been adopted (there were massive amounts of devastation caused by this on a daily bases).
The day we adopted Vivienne I had been compulsively refreshing the Humane Society page to see if new kittens had been added. Then at about three in the afternoon Vivi's profile popped up on my screen. She was The ONE. Her name was "Tink" then and she was the youngest kitten available. She was also the only long haired kitten they had at the time. Some of the kittens had profile pictures but she did not. That did not matter to me because I though I knew all I needed to know about her (long hair: check, female: check).
My husband was waiting for me outside of my work and we raced to the Humane Society, turned in our adoption application, and were told that we could go look at the kittens while we wait for a "Pet Adoption Counselor". I was beside myself with glee at the site of about 14 kittens. But where was "Tink"! She was no where to be seen, I began to panic. Had she already been adopted?!
Finally my husband saw her profile on the side of one of the kennels. He said "Here is her profile. Um did you know she only has one eye???". I responded, "No that can't be, they would have said something about that online". I assured him it was just a bad quality photo, maybe perhaps it had even been smudged (he was not convinced). I was just excited to know she was still available (they would have removed the profile if she was not).
We then quickly realized that "Tink" was in the kennel with her profile on it but she was in a large fluffy bed curled up so we could barely see her. I could tell she as extremely tiny and very cute (what more do you need to know... Right?). Since we could barely see her we started looking at other kittens and decided that we either wanted "Tink" or a little orange kitten who was also scrumptiously adorable .
As we waited for our chance to finally hold one of these precious little fluff balls, I overheard another family talking to an adoption counselor about "Tink". I thought "No!!! You cannot have her, she is mine!!!!". But then my thoughts were stopped abruptly when I heard the words "yes she only has ONE EYE".
My husband had been right. This poor little kitten only had one eye. When our adoption counselor finally arrived I had a million questions for her. Naturally I was desperate to know what had happened to this poor creature. I did get the answer but the tale was a hard one to hear. "Tink" had been rescued (along with several other kittens) from the home of a cat hoarder. Once she had been trapped they quickly realized this frail kitten needed help. Her right eye was ruptured (do not look up pictures online... I am scarred for life) and she had a horrible upper respiratory infection (cat cold). They had no choice but to remove her eye and then place her on an IV with antibiotics.
As I held this tiny kitten in my hands I could not believe what she had been through. My husband and I did end up holding both kittens. The orange one was just fine but I knew that "Tink" was mine. She just sat in my lap and purred, although probably more out of fear than contentment. I also knew that she needed us. We could provide her with a quiet safe environment where she could feel completely at home and thrive.
When we left the Humane Society we still had not named our new little family member. My husband of course threw out some less than desirable names (Mike Wazowski, Pirate, Cyclopes...) but I wanted our kitten to have a beautifu name. After all even with only one eye she was more beautiful than any other kitten I had ever seen. We settled on Vivienne which I found out later means "live". How appropriate for a kitten who almost did not!
As we drove home with little Vivienne I asked my husband what he was thinking. He said "I just knew as soon as you realized she had only one eye, we would be leaving with her". I smiled because I knew that was true. How can you say no to a one eyed kitten?!
No comments:
Post a Comment