A Tail of Two Kitties (and a plea for help!)
One chilly late winter Michigan day, a friend of mine let in a stray tabby who had taken up residence under the front porch. This petite little feline was given the moniker Blue Whale. No joke. This is what happens when you let the 9-year-old son of an eco-hippie name your cat. A couple months later, just in time for Easter, Blue Whale had a litter of four kittens. I took an instant liking to one of the female kittens, so of course that one got adopted first and I ended up with the other one instead. I now consider this to be very fortunate. I chose the name Rhiannon from the wizard Merlin’s sister in T.A. Barron’s The Lost Years of Merlin. She was “Rhia” for short until she was big and sassy enough to handle her full name. Rhia was my fast friend and shadow right away, always wanting to be in the middle of whatever I was doing, even when what I was doing involved a hammer and a staple gun. After that episode, it’s astonishing that she retained both ears and all four paws.
When I moved to Colorado, Rhia came with me. My husband, Ian, joined the family about a year later, and Rhiannon abruptly demoted me from my post as “favorite human” and staked her claim to Ian instead. By age 4, Rhiannon was beginning to mellow and was ready to settle down to being a quiet, respectable adult feline. And then Basil entered the picture.
With our final year of college looming, Ian and I knew that we would not have as much time or energy to devote to Rhiannon, and she was never very fond of solitude. Our solution to this problem was that we needed to get another cat to keep her company. On our first trip to the humane society, the front display window was filled with a batch of solid black and solid grey kittens, with one exception being a little black and white kitty with funny markings on his face who ran around pouncing on the other kitties while they slept. On the second visit, which I made alone, I went with every intention of adopting a grey kitten because I have always wanted one. But the little black and white kitty was sitting at the front of his cage, fully alert, and he caught my eye again. The instant the shelter volunteer brought him into the meeting room, he started to purr. My defenses were laid to waste and he came home to join the family that same day. We named this tiny cat with a huge personality Basil, after the miniature dragon Basilgaraad in T.A. Barron’s Merlin’s Dragon.
Rhiannon, of course, was not entirely pleased with this new development, and saw her plans for an easy, quiet routine pounced and shredded by the little dragon-cat. For the past year, Basil has kept Rhiannon on her toes. She has warmed up to him, and though she is still a rather placid cat, she has recovered a good deal of her vigor and animation. After all, she has to stay alert if she wants to hold her own with Basil, who like his namesake has become considerably bigger than he was when he started out.
At the beginning of this year an opportunity presented itself for us to try for a program to teach English at an immersion program in South Korea. For Ian, the opportunity to teach abroad for a year or two is an incredible way to jump start his teaching career, especially since he is interested in teaching ESL in the long term. For me, living in a different culture for a while will allow me to put my anthropology degree to good use. The chance was too good to pass up, so after Ian spent a month doing an internship in South Korea to try out the program, we applied and were accepted for a full year contract.
We are very excited for this new and life-changing experience, but sadly the living arrangements in S. Korea will not allow us to bring our furry family members along. It has been something of an unpleasant paradox. We believe that adopting a pet is a commitment for the lifetime of that pet, and we very much want to be Rhiannon and Basil’s forever family. On the other hand, we feel that going to South Korea to teach is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for our personal and professional development. To resolve this, we are looking for someone who has a big enough heart to take in these two lovely cats and care for them while we are in Korea, and then return them to us when we come home.
The offer is this: We will pay for food, supplies, licensing, and any necessary vet fees, and once our paychecks start coming in regularly in Korea we plan to pay a small monthly stipend. Our contract in Korea is for one year starting in September. We will be leaving the U.S. probably in the last week of August, and would like to have the cats placed a week or two before that time so that they can adjust to their new home before we leave. If you’re in the Colorado Springs area, we’ll need to leave the cats with you before we leave the state on July 11. You would have the cats for a little over a year. If we decide to renew our contract for another year, we will give you the option to keep the cats another year or we will find them new placement. The cats will come fully vaccinated and licensed. We would strongly prefer that Rhiannon and Basil be kept indoors only for their safety. If possible, we would like them to be cared for by someone who is a cat parent or former cat parent and can understand and appreciate their little quirks and occasional mischief. Basil and Rhiannon are both very loving and they will reward you with excellent companionship for as long as they are with you, and you will have our undying gratitude as well. We know that this is a really big thing to ask of anyone, but we trust that there is someone out there whose generosity and love of felines is equally big. If you think you can handle this double-handful of fur and fun, please let us know as soon as possible. Thank you very much for reading!
Sincerely,
Amethyst, Ian, Rhiannon, and Basil
