A new pet owner

It was the summer of 2022, the sun was blazing and the air was very thick with the smell of the city. I felt so down and depressed in my life. I just moved to the city with my boyfriend and life couldn’t be any better, or so I hope. Day in and day out, just working nonstop. It got to the point we came to a breaking point. We needed to do something to bring forth joy and happiness in our lives. Yes, we love each other very much so that wasn’t the cause. It was the need for a source, substance, or something easier to obtain, a pet. Working early mornings as a part-time truck driver is exhausting. I never have time to spend with my lover. He tells me we should get a pet. I’m more of a dog lover while he suggested a cat.

I have never in my entire life ever thought I would get a cat. I don’t even know where to begin as far as owning one. Do I walk it? Do I shower it? Or is all taken care of by the able-bodied animal? I had to factor in all these questions while searching for the perf-excuse me, a good type of animal. While scouring the internet for a pet, we still have to deal with our lives. That means stressing about bills, groceries, and other expenses that might come about. It wasn’t until it was recent that my boyfriend found an animal. He found it off craigslist. I was a bit skeptical about the process. First off, it was a guy whom we didn’t get to see. Second, it seemed a bit off but hey, it was for our happiness. So we waited for the person to contact us and see what we were offered. There were 3 kittens he had for sale. He told us he was giving them away for free and that they were potty trained as well. I was relieved, I thought I had to be another “trainer” for this pet. So we agreed on the location, time, and all that good stuff.

We waited for about 2 days and got a text on the day to pick out our new pet. We looked at the travel time and saw it was about 30 minutes from where we lived. We put on our clothes, put on our game faces, and headed out the door. My anxiety was through the roof. I have never done anything like this before so I was faced with a lot of uncertainty. We get to the destination to our surprise, it was at a gas station. I kind of figured meeting in an open, busy seemed apostate for such a transaction to take place. We waited for about an hour, looking for this male or female that was giving us our new pet. He comes up and parks next to us and behold, our new pet. It is a baby kitten, about 8-9 weeks old. He is extremely little, no bigger than the size of my hand. We started to tear up, so many emotions pouring out of both of us.

The spark of joy got reignited within us. We drove to pet smart to go buy him some stuff, food, toys, etc. We brought him into our house and named him Maxim. Since this all occurred a week ago, the only fond memory I have is seeing my kitten use the bathroom on their own. It brought me so much excitement that I couldn’t hold back my tears any longer. I was just really happy that he used it on his own. Not to excuse the fact, we washed our sheets, twice before it came to that. But above all, I am very grateful to have this kitten in my life and wouldn’t trade him up for the world.