Twenty-One and Counting (Charlie and the Angel/Return of the Tiger)

In February of this year, Brie and Xena had very nearly recovered their tenuous grip on sanity, and the Tall Lady and I were going through a severe case of kitten withdrawal. I attended a VOKRA meeting at Karen Duncan's house, and it was there that I heard about Charlie's Angels.

Charlie

Four kittens had been trapped in Surrey and had been named Drew (as in Barrymore), Diaz (like Cameron), Lucy (Liu) and, of course, Charlie. Drew and Diaz had already been adopted, but Lucy and Charlie, who were living at Karen's, needed a foster home. They were both ready for their family planning options to be exercised. In fact, Lucy was putting on a bit of girth, and Karen was concerned that there had an excess of familial familiarity.

Lucy

Our friend Kim drove the three of us to the Killarney Veterinary Clinic, where the kittens were rushed off into their kennels to get ready for their surgeries. The Tall Lady and I were to pick them up when they had recovered. When we called the next morning, we were pleased to find out that not only had Lucy not been pregnant, but that Charlie was a little girl as well.

Charlie is a cheeky little medium-haired tabby and Lucy was a beautiful silver-grey and tortoiseshell with perhaps a touch of the exotic orient in her pedigree. I can't say that either of them was especially shy or scared, but they were distant and guarded with us.

Shortly after they arrived, we got a tearful phone call from the lady in North Van who had adopted Raja and Darcy. Both were terrified of the boys and she was afraid that the adoption wasn't working. She tried for a couple of days more, and then called us again to ask if she could bring them back to us.

Raja (aka Darwin, aka Rufus) came back first and as soon as he was gone, Darcy became the family lapwarmer. It seems that he was the shy one, and as soon as she was by herself, Darcy was just fine. When we got our tiny, terrified tiger back to the ol' homestead, it took about ten minutes for him to climb back up on our laps. After that, he was ready to meet the new girls.

Cat Nap

Charlie and Lucy already loved Xena and Brie, just like all of the other kittens had, so it was no surprise when they fell in love with Raja too. They had a great deal to do with calming him down, and we hoped that he'd have a positive influence on them as well, but no such luck. When Raja was adopted for the second time, they were still no closer to being ready for their adoption.

Sure, they loved the big girls, and they even liked us well enough, but we still could not touch them, and we began to wonder if they might not do better in another foster home - maybe one with just their foster parent and them.

Lucy was our first tragedy - after she was moved, she fell from a seventh floor window, and was never found. Charlie has gone to live with our friend Maria in what is very likely Cat Paradise. When we last heard, she still wasn't ready for adoption...but we keep hoping.