I Gave a Baby Girl a Home

Penny cuddling Bluebear.

This is the story all about how my life got flipped, turned upside down...

Ok, I'm sorry for that. It just seemed appropriate. This is Penny's story.

I have always wanted a cat. My goal from the time I got to college was to own two kittens. I was going to get a grey and black striped tabby, and an all-black cat with just a tiny little patch of white on its chest. I was going to name them Bink and Bonk (I'm a big fan of silly names, and it seemed like perfect little names for two playful little boy kittens) and we were all going to live happily ever after.

Well, needless to say, once I moved out of the dorms, I realized just how little money I actually had. I couldn't even afford to feed myself half the time, much less take care of kittens. That would just be cruel. So, I gave up on my dream of having kittens until after I already had the necessary things like a degree, a steady job, and steady meal times.

Itty Bitty Baby Penny.

Flash forward to the end of my year in Germany. I've just found some great roommates and we were discussing living arrangements. I'd be living with 4 other people, 2 dogs and a cat (read: a zoo). I was looking forward to it, but I knew once again that there was no way I'd be able to bring more animals into the house. A few days later, one of my roommates told me about how she had found a kitten on the side of the road. She was only about 4 weeks old, and she was sick with pneumonia, but they had taken her to the vet and she was well on her way to recovery. She posted a picture of the kitten on Facebook, and my heart was completely melted. She was this little orange fluffball with little orange tiger stripes, and she looked so sweet, even though she was sleeping in the picture. I begged my new roommates to let us keep her (they were originally going to give her away...You know, cause our house was already a zoo), and they agreed (it really didn't take much convincing). They decided to name her Penelope, or Penny for short (I wasn't too fond of the name, but I was hopelessly outvoted. But the name suits her now, so it all works out).

Penny with Butterball and Klaus. She loves to snuggle with
stuffed animals.

I moved into the house about a month after they found her. As soon as I saw her in person for the first time, I was in love. I picked her up, and she just started purring with the loudest purrbox I've ever heard in a little kitten. She curled up on my boobs and went straight to sleep. It was so adorable.

There was a bit of drama when I first arrived involving the other cat. Aya (the older cat) was not happy about moving to a new house, and she was really unhappy about not being the only cat in the house anymore. So she took to marking her territory. It got so bad, we thought we were going to have to get rid of the kitten. Fortunately, we decided to keep Penny in the master bedroom (it had an adjoining bathroom, and since she was so little, she still had lots of room to play around and not feel confined), and the territoriality of Aya drastically reduced.

Penny also likes to read. 

Still, that was only a temporary solution. She is a devious little kitten, and loved to escape the bedroom just to play with the older cat. Eventually, we decided that she was getting a little big for the room, and enough time had passed, so we allowed her access to the whole house. The house remained free of pee or poop (except in litter boxes), so Penny was finally granted her freedom.

Another cost we didn't consider initially was annual shots and eventually spaying. Penny was not happy to have her lady bits removed, and she turned from the once happy and loving kitty to angry, angsty teenage kitty. It was a dark time in our household. Fortunately, however, she went back to being a happy kitty a few weeks after her surgery.

Despite hating baths, Penny loves to play in the bathtub.

Her favorite activities are pouncing, playing with the springy door stopper in my room, going up in my boxsprings and attacking my feet as I walk by, tormenting Aya, and lately, attempting to find out what "outside" is all about. She's discovered the trick which I like to call "the super jump". I'll be standing, and I'll nod my head or move somehow, and she somehow jumps from a standstill all the way up to my butt in an attempt to protect me... from my own hair. It's very cute, but very painful.

It's a Penny in your pocket!

All in all, she's getting pretty big now. Soon, she'll be a grownup kitty, though the vet said that she's a bit of a runt, so she'll always be small for her age. I love her to death, and I thought I should introduce ya'll to her.

Keegan napping with Penny.

Penny and Klaus got in a fight. She's winning, I think.

She's not happy I woke her up.

A hormonal teenager cuddling me.

The most recent picture. She's almost a grownup now.