Meet Allie, my CFO, that's Chief Feline Officer here at The Cat Woman of Roncesvalles secret headquarters. I trust Allie to guide me in the ways of the cat. She tells me the best catnip to purchase for my kitty charges, tests my home-made toys and puts her stamp of approval to all cat treats.
But, Allie was not supposed to come home with us. It was her brother Mig we had chosen to fill the void left by the loss of our dear Bailey, a beautiful black and grey tabby who made our apartment a home for almost 20 years. My sister-in-law Sally, who knew we needed a kitty to ease the pain of our loss, found Mig for us. A friend of hers needed homes for an unexpected litter of kittens and we were quick to oblige!
On our way to meet Mig, I was adamant that we were only choosing one kitten and that kitten likely was Mig, from what we had heard about the litter. Thou, my husband Mike and I had almost always had 2 cats in our household, after the years of caring for ill and elderly cats, I really just wanted the simplicity of one cat.
Fast forward to meeting Momma Jade and her beautiful kittens. Jade was a stunning black beauty who unfortunately (or fortunately, I say!) had an encounter with a dashing neighbourhood dude, an orange tabby, who snuck into her home and woo'd her.
Momma-extrordinaire, Jade
The result of this union was a collection of sweet black kittens (all boys) and two tabbies, one soft grey (Mig) and one silky black and grey-orangy-brown (Allie). Mig was a charmer right from the start and we knew he was the boy for us.
Mig, getting into trouble...something he's spent a lifetime perfecting!
We sat with Jade and her kittens and just watched her "mother" her 4 week old brood. Chirped and called, watched and gathered...Jade was a wonderful mom and all her kittens were healthy, happy and hilarious. I could have taken everyone one them home but we were here to meet Mig and arrange to adopt him when he was old enough to leave Momma Jade and his siblings.
BUT, one kitten kept catching my attention....little Allie. The only girl of the litter and a bit smaller and younger looking than her precocious brothers. As I was sitting on the floor, kittens playing around me, Allie marched up, checked me out, played a bit and quickly curled up on my lap, purring away. She had me...hook, line and sinker. I looked at Mike and he knew what I was thinking. I was trying to talk myself out of adopting Allie but I just couldn't...I KNEW she was my girl.
Meeting wee Allie
The weeks that followed were so hard because we just wanted to add Mig and Allie to our home. It seemed to be love at first sight and my heart ached 'til we were reunited. Finally, March 13 arrived, the day our kittens would be ours! They had grown so much in those 3 weeks and were even sweeter than I remembered. We popped our kittens in our kennel and drove them home from Oshawa. On the 45 minute drive, we talked about names and quickly settled on Mig and Allie. Cycling had become very important to Mike and I and we wanted velo-centric names for our babes. Allie was named after Alison Sydor, then Canadian mountain-bike goddess who we followed and admired. We wanted a name that sounded very different for our boy so they could learn their names easier and without much hesitation, we named Allie's brother Mig. Mig was short for Miguel Indurain, 5 time winner of the Tour de France in the 1990's whose nickname was "Big Mig".
So satisfied with our name choices, we introduced Mig and Allie to our bike-filled apartment. We knew their names were perfect when they naturally gravitated toward our bicycles. These kittens were, without a doubt, supposed to be ours....they loved our home and our bikes too! We were so in love with these siblings that even Mig chewing on Mike's brand new road bike was only met with our laughter...oh yeah, and a trip to the pet store to buy something less expensive for Mig to chew on!
Day 1 - Allie and Mig joining our household