March 6, 2004 - Mars has landed!

Peter and I went to the Humane Society this morning and there were a lot of people there! The doors didn't open until 10 minutes after we'd arrived. So there's this whole bunch of people and I went to the front of the group (because most people were hanging around near the walls so their kids could play) and I'm next to a young girl and her parents and they're there because they need to have the kitten they just got looked at. The proceedure is, you fill out a form, take a number and wait for your turn to get to try for the cat you want. So people first in line (who follow the proceedure) get the most options. So the little girl (with the the kitten) tells me that she's going to run ahead to get a good number (because close to opening some people, one older lady in particular, were shoving ahead of us) and she'll get me the next one since she's just getting her cat looked at so I'll get to be first. Well, the doors open, I get stuck behind old-lady-shoves-a-lot and, wouldn't you know it, she's slow!! I'm far from being the first to the numbers but the little girl meets me there and quietly hands me #2 for the day. I could have hugged her.

I had brought my paperwork from Tuesday with me so I didn't need to do that either. So here I am, in the cat adoption room with lots of people and I can't find Peter (he was hanging back trying to avoid the crowd coming in but that's no use to me because I have only a short time to check out the available cats and he's supposed to be helping me) I had seen a 7 month male cat online, Brinkley, and I was looking for him because I figured there was no way they'd have many young cats. Most of the cats had been there on Tuesday so it wasn't taking so long, when I hit a bit of a crowd in front of one of the cages (right beside Brinkley, actually) so I look at Brinkley, who seemed kinda standoffish, and there are two 3 month old kittens. One was jumping around and one was kinda lying there enjoying the attention. They were soooo cute. So I grab Peter, I have a couple of cats I like the looks of and, because there were two kittens in the cage, Peter figures that they have to go together. I ask a woman working there and she says that no, kittens are kept together because they keep eachother company but it would be best if you took both unless you have another cat, which we do. Then she asks my number. I show it to her and she is surprised because I am first.

She asks if I want one of the kittens and I say yes. So she goes to the cage to get the paperwork (it's clipped to the cage along with the microchip certificate) and there's nothing there. She looks again at my number and announces to the room that whoever has the paperwork for the kittens had to return it because I was first in line and had first choice.
A woman (with two sort of ugly kids...poor things...) comes forward (after her husband rats on her) and says that she has the papers because she's getting the kittens. The woman helping me (I don't know her name, let's call her cat-lady) tells the mother that no one but the adoption staff is supposed to touch the papers and that she needs the papers back and that the mother has to fill out a form and get a number and that when her turn comes, if one of the kittens are still available, she can try for it. The mother gets surly, asks where to find the number and then looks all mad when cat-lady starts telling Peter and I about the cats. I guess she really considered them hers.
Anyway, everyone around the cages breathes a sigh of relief as Peter confirms that we can only take one. We decide on the less hyper one figuring that it would drive Ares crazy. So we do the paperwork and, when we get back to the cage, there's quite a crowd. Everyone there watches as our kitten gets taken out and her sister looks out at her (the other paper was gone so either some deserving family was going to take her home or the mother took the paperwork again so no one else would get the kitten, which seems more likely and is sad because her troll-kids probably would eat the poor thing. Ugly troll-kids.)

Anyway, we now have Mars, which is 99% definitely her name. I want to be sure I'm comfortable with it. And Peter, who didn't want another cat in the first place, really likes her. I told him not to get too attached to her because if Ares doesn't warm to her, I'll have to find her a new home (I'm thinking my aunt's place. She's always there and she'd like a cat but my uncle is a bit against it but I think she could probably keep my Mars if I pointed out that she really needed a home.) Anyway, I hope Ares likes her because she needs a buddy.