This is day 75 with Olivia. This is the picture that pulled at my heart and caused me to say “YES! We want her.”
As many of you know, we lost our precious Lily on May 17th. She was only eleven years old and was either born with kidney disease or developed it at a very young age. We treated it and monitored it throughout her short life.
I knew we would adopt again. Our tortie, 
Sophie, was stressing over Lily’s loss and I so wanted to fill the space in our home and my heart with another kitten soul and energy (oh that energy!) It was a long and difficult process to adopt partly because of COVID. I won’t go into that here. Just let me say that when I realized that the cats I was choosing from the photos online (no visits to shelters during COVID), were all dilute tabbies like Lily, I knew it was too soon to adopt.
One day I received this baby picture of a sweet calico kitten from a friend/rescue shelter director in Santa Barbara and I said, “YES,” immediately. Olivia had been rescued with her siblings from under a house in the Los Angeles area. The little beauty needed a home. We were to bring Olivia home in two weeks once she’d had her shots and was spayed. I couldn’t wait.
However, a few days before our adoption date, Olivia’s
siblings showed signs of ringworm and she had to be treated along with them for another three weeks. I was awfully disappointed, but they say all things happen for a reason and I now believe that the massage baths she got every few days as part of her treatment helped to make Olivia the love-bug that she is.
We’ve had her now, as I said, for 75 days and do we ever love her. She’s a pretty typical calico—with that impish tendency to get into trouble. But we’ve also learned that, despite the fact that she has a strong mind of her own, she is teachable, she wants to please (sometimes), and she has been known to teach us a thing or two these past ten weeks or so.
With a kitten, in particular a strong-minded calico, you pick your battles. I insist that she stay off my computer desk and she has agreed (at least when I’m looking, which is why I devised a cover for my keyboard). She insists on eating next to Sophie and as long as I’m watching, no longer bothers Sophie’s food.
It’s been a joy getting to know Olivia. She’s a delight—everything I could have dreamed of in a kitten and more. Love her to pieces.
