Okay, I have a third chapter to this story, and I hope you all will enjoy reading it.

I had a real hard morning on August 23rd, two days after I’d brought Keola home; I had to have an MRI which was pretty stressful, even though it was only on my foot. I am incredibly claustrophobic.

Afterwards I decided that I deserved to go to the shelter and say hi to Kalakoa. While there, I realized that I hadn’t even seen Aurora… well, let me back up. When I went there Sunday, it was to see Keola and Aurora only. But when I saw Kalakoa, I totally forgot about Aurora, and Monday night I was having this kind of panicky feeling, like, why didn’t I see her? What if I was supposed to? What if I left her there and she had to stay forever? Stuff like that. It was so weird about how agitated I felt! I mean, she and Keola were the kitties I went to see in the first place, but the minute I saw Kalakoa my brain stopped or something.

So when I got to the shelter, I asked the volunteer if I could see Aurora before I went back to see Kalakoa; she said it’d be fine, so I went into the get acquainted room to wait. This time the volunteer (Aleetha) came in with me, and told me how sweet Aurora was. She also knew Keola, and adored him, and was so delighted that I’d adopted him.

Anyway, Aurora was a delight. So cuddly, and just gorgeous. But very long-haired. Aleetha brought in a Furminator (think mega-brush/comb), and we combed gobs of fur out of that cat. All the while we were combing her, she purred, and wriggled to get closer, and kneaded my legs like crazy. Aleetha even trimmed Aurora’s nails, which were really long. I found out she’d been there since April, over four months living in a 2′ X 2′ kennel, and that probably the reason she hadn’t gotten adopted was because she is long haired. I felt so bad for her… she was so sweet, four years old. And no one wanted her. Suddenly, I couldn’t stand the though of leaving her there.

I called Nolemana, and although he wasn’t really crazy about having three cats again, he said okay so long as I help with litter box duties. And guess what? I ended up bringing Aurora home too. When Aleesha told the other staffers that Aurora was going to her forever home, this huge cheer went up in the room. They’d so badly wanted her to find a loving home.

When I got home, I thought, oh my gosh, what the heck am I doing? But I couldn’t leave her there. She could have lived there forever, because unless an animal is a danger to the community or people, they get to stay there. But I wanted to give her a home. A 2 X 2 kennel, even in a wonderful shelter, is no place to spend a life.

So there I was, with three new cats inside of three days. I can’t believe it. I had Keola in the bedroom till we could close off the stairway to downstairs, and Aurora was in the laundry room. I knew I would rename her, but her dream name hadn’t come to me yet.

There were times when I wondered if I’d made a mistake. What if Keola and Aurora just fought all the time? Suddenly it seemed like a lot of kitties where there had been just ʻUkulele before. I still missed her, still cried about losing her, still could hardly stand that she was gone.

No way could I replace her, but I learned it was more about spreading around the love I had for her.

Nolemana and I spent a lot of time using the Furminator on Aurora; she had lots of dead undercoat, and we got out a small dishpan of fur out. She got her vet check just like Keola had, and I was glad to know that both of them checked out healthy (though she has to lose weight). My vet fell in love with Aurora…he said it’s a good thing he hadn’t seen her first or he would have taken her home himself!

And then her dream name came to me… she is a dilute calico, kind of a misty gray, and one night I knew her name: Noelani. It means “heavenly mist”. And it fit her perfectly.

Here is another photo of her:

This one I took with my camera, and though the color is off, you can see how furry she is.

So now our home was almost complete. It would be at least a month before I could bring Kalakoa home, and I had two new kitties to acclimate to their new home and to each other.

Which I will write about next time. But garanz ball baranz…no going be one Part Four going to da shelta!