Million Dollar Pet Pix

As you may know from my others posts (see our pet stars Max, Simon and Geo) my connection with cats has to do with the fact that I manage a pet shop.  How Lenny joined our clan was totally unexpected. 

Lenny’s story begins because of my customer, Kim, who is a wonderful person. Kim has 10 cats.  One day Kim came into the pet shop and told me that her cat had kittens and asked me if I could help her find homes for them. Of course that S-U-C-K-E-R sign on my forehead lit up like a bright red neon sign!!!

When the time came that the kittens were ready to be taken away from their mommy, Kim let me know that she would need my help to find homes for 3 or 4 kittens. I already had 6 customers waiting and told them all that if there were enough kittens everyone would get one.  I was ready to go into action finding these wonderful little creatures good homes...I was on a mission!

The day arrived when Kim came to the pet shop with four beautiful kittens that were about 12 weeks old. One was an orange tabby and 3 were calicos.  The orange tabby was the only male and as you may know 9 out of 10 orange tabbies are males...and about 8 out of 10 calicos are females.  I made 4 phone calls that day and left messages that the kittens were available.  I tried to be fair by placing the calls in the order that I had gotten the numbers.  My day was complete knowing that I was the reason these little guys were going to get good homes. That feeling is so great.  I just can't describe it, it's like happy happy joy joy...

After about 2 hours I got calls back from 3 of the 4 customers. Each  said they would pick up the cats at the end of the day after work.  I must confess I had eyes for that orange tabby BIG TIME.  He was a boy like my other 3 kittens but I held back, which took a lot of doing! 

Then about 5 hours later I got the fourth call from the customer who wanted the boy cat.  It was now 3:00 PM and the lady who called last came first for her boy cat which was the orange tabby. Just like that he walked out of my life in the lady’s arms. I was happy but a bit sad because I had fallen in love with him. 

At about 6:00 PM everyone else came for their kittens.  Everyone was happy and so was I. My day was almost over.  My day starts at 10:00 AM and ends at 8:00 PM.

Then at about 7:45 PM a customer walked in the store with a box.  It was a gentleman with very red eyes as if he was crying. Turns out he was the husband of the lady who came to pick up the orange tabby.  He looked at me and said that he was very sorry but they could not keep the cat.  He hadn’t realized how allergic he was to the poor kitten. I had no idea who this man was until he told me his wife was the one who picked up the kitten that afternoon.  Then it came to me… the orange tabby…WOW!  He explained that although he was allergic....his wife didn't have the heart to bring the kitten back as she too was in love with him.  I felt so bad for this kitten.  When I opened the box, there he was this little angel staring so bright eyed and happy.  I couldn’t leave him in the shop overnight so I took him home with me.

It was my intention to bring him back to the shop the next day to find him a home.  When my husband, Jack, came home... that lovely, little creature just captured his heart as he had mine.  Much to my happiness Jack said, “Oh, he looks like a Lenny!  So we kept him…

Lenny fit in right away with his brothers and has been a happy addition to our family.