Touchdown

We have some sad news to report. Stella, our cat, went missing about 4 or 5 weeks ago. Anna Clare noticed it first, of course. She said she had not seen her in a day or so. The more I thought about that the more concerned I was. She has never disappeared not even for a day. The odd thing is our neighbor's cat went missing around the same time.

There was some devastation (Anna Clare) and sadness (all of us) as we looked and looked for her, searched the pound and Humane Society, and put up signs around the neighborhood. She still has not been found and it's probably better that we have no idea what happened. Stella has been a GREAT pet. I mentioned when we got her that we are dog people, not cat people. But she totally turned us into Stella-people. And it certainly didn't hurt things that we haven't seen a mouse or a snake in our yard in the almost 2 years we had her.

Steve decided last weekend it was time to get a new cat. We wanted another rescue cat so he took the girls to Petsmart Saturday night to browse. They sent me a picture from his phone of Neptune, the cat they had decided was the one for us. Sunday before church we loaded up the kennel with plans to make Neptune a member of the Thompson family after church. When we got out of church Anna Clare requested that we not go to lunch but go straight to Petsmart in the event that Neptune would be spotted by another potential adopting family. I assured her that Neptune would be safe in his little cage and that Mama was not going to pass up Sunday lunch

After a quick lunch at Momma Goldberg's we headed to Petsmart to pick up Neptune. Lo and behold when we got there we saw a little girl and her parents doting all over Neptune. I told AC to play it cool...they were just looking around at the cats. We got a little closer and when I heard the Petsmart employee say, "You can either take him home now or come back and get him later," I knew we were dead meat. What are the chances?!?! Well, as you can imagine, the tears began to flow. She ran out of the cat room to tell Steve. Steve walked up to me and said "For the love..." We watched Neptune get whisked away with his new little family as AC just stood there crying. I leaned down and whispered to her, "Anna Clare, we prayed at lunch that we would find just the right cat for our family. For whatever reason, Neptune is not it. There are lots of cats here that need good homes, so let's see if we can find one to love."

In about 1.2 seconds, we found Touchdown, or "T.D." as affectionately known by the Humane Society volunteers. I mean, where do they get these names? I guess when you have to name hundreds of cats all the time, you just get desperate. He was sweet, and sleepy (Steve worried they had him doped up to get him a home and we would see the effects later:), and just right. She and Owen agreed he was the one for us, we snapped a picture, filled out our paperwork and snatched him up before some other family could!

One week later, he is still here and happy as can be. Anna Clare decided she did not want to change his name and I once again let go of my control issues even though I feel like an idiot going out in the yard yelling, "Touchdown!" He and Ollie love to play on the back porch, and Wilson won't even look at him. Stella put Wilson in his cat place long ago. So things are all happy and harmony around here and we are ready to begin our adventure with Touchdown.