Hello, Beautiful!

Let’s talk about how the sweetest furbaby in the world came into our lives, shall we?

So many of you have reached out to ask about the new kitten we adopted, and we feel so blessed we could adopt her. The question I’ve been getting most is about how this sweet girl came into our lives. So, I wanted to put this post together to let you in on just how little baby Belle came into our lives.

Honestly, my husband Thomas had a lot to do with this one, ya’ll. I’m usually the animal-loving softy who’s ready to melt over pretty much anything with fur. (Sorry, ya’ll, I just don’t love or care about snakes the way I do bunnies or pretty much anything else with fur.) But I think it’s safe to say that once Thomas really got his heart set on this kitty bitty, there was no turning back.

Belle is already developing such an interesting personality with all kinds of little quirks. She loves naps like any kitten, but she also always cries out to be held or fed as soon as she’s fully awake.

Imagine this little one dozing in the cat adoption section in the front of the Raleigh PetCo. Her adoption agency had set up an agreement with PetCo that allows the agency to utilize the space – since, to be fair, people shopping in pet stores are the kinds of people who would stop everything and adopt an animal if given the opportunity. We made a small donation to Belle’s adoption agency with her adoption fee and learned that PetCo also donates to the agency each time a cat is adopted. Even better, if five cats are adopted in one weekend, PetCo donates a “bonus” amount to the adoption agency. Shouts to PetCo for being a good corporate actor and facilitating adoptions!

I can totally relate to her routine, though. It’s like, “Okay, I’m awake. Love me! Feed me!” I mean, there has to be a reason, right? Tough life.

Thomas and I were in Raleigh visiting his Aunt and Uncle’s family over the 4th of July break from work, and his parents and brother’s fam had also driven down from Maryland where they live. It was our first time together since the wedding, and the girls were all out exploring the shopping center. Thomas and his dad had tagged along in a different car to the same area to “do their own thing.” I hadn’t been in Michael’s long with the girls in the fam when I got a text from Thomas that said, “Dude. You’ve got to come see this cat. I want it.” I thought, “There’s no way he’s serious,” and put my phone back in my pocket.

This creamy plush blanket from Bed, Bath, and Beyond is Belle’s absolute favorite to bury into, and it happens to be the one I always use at home. I love that she always wants to be snuggled in somewhere close to us. Or the blanket, whatever, I’ll definitely take it.

I’ve wanted a cat since we moved here to Charlotte four years ago, but it hasn’t been the right time for us. We were in law school and planning a wedding, then focused on getting jobs, so we’ve definitely known we shouldn’t even think about taking anything else as big as a new pet on until after all of that stuff. But those considerations aside, we had the sweetest black cat with bright yellow-green eyes named Edgar before we moved here. Edgar was so wonderful with the dogs, and they with him. He and Rosie, one of our golden retrievers, would often cuddle up with each other, and it was the sweetest thing.

Edgar was diagnosed with kidney disease right before we moved to Charlotte for law school. When we found out the treatment was going to cost thousands of dollars and that he’d still only have small chance to live – always in pain – we made the impossibly hard to decision to say goodbye. For all these reasons, the idea of having another cat come home with us has been something we’ve both wanted and haven’t been able to even imagine for four years.

Belle has the most gorgeous green eyes that have only gotten brighter as she’s grown. I do so love the sweet gaze of dog eyes, but gazing into cat eyes can be almost mesmerizing.

Once Thomas came running up behind me in Michael’s telling me I needed to go see this cat with him, I knew he was serious. I was so excited to see him excited about something we had sort of unintentionally avoided talking about for so long. Once he had Belle out of her kennel and in his arms, the smile on his face said it all. Her eyes were so dreamy, and she was so cozy-comfortable around us from the moment we picked her up. I kept asking Thomas what it was about this one, and he said he just knew the moment he looked over and saw her.

He said it was the same feeling he got when he picked out Cambria, our pit bull. I immediately felt like we had to trust his instinct and bring this little girl into the wolf pack. Cambria is one of the best dogs in the entire world, guaranteed, and Thomas also picked her out from the outside of her cage, without ever picking her up first. I hadn’t even opened the gate to pick her up yet and he was already walking away, calling our roommates to ask if it was okay to bring her home. And man, am I glad he did.

I love how curious Belle is with everything going on around her, and my camera is no exception. She’s always leaning in to investigate the shutter movement. Ughhh her facial features look like a little panther, I can’t stand how cute she is.

While we were completing the adoption paperwork – uh, yeah, we had to provide three friend/family references and our current vet as a reference – a little girl came up to Thomas to ask if he was done holding Belle. We had been standing around for almost an hour, and I was beginning to wonder if we were even going to go through with this. Would we get approved, how would we get her back to Charlotte, what if they had to close down for the day and we had to come back on Monday (which we couldn’t).

Anyway, this little girl comes up to my husband to ask if she can hold this kitten – before we’ve even been approved to take her home, by the way – and he goes, “Oh, sweetie, you can hold her but this kitty is actually mine, I’m so sorry.” Totally calm and polite, totally serious. I’m pretty sure I had an out-of-body experience watching that little girl’s face fall while thinking, “Is this really happening?!” But also, how 100% certain that this cat belonged with us Thomas obviously felt was everything. I was falling more in love with both of them by the second.

Belle’s collar is from PetCo. We picked it out because the rose reminded me of the rose from Beauty and the Beast, just like her name!

Belle slept on my shoulder for most of the way back to Charlotte, and once we got her home it was like a dream. She’s been the best kitty – finding her litter box right away, drinking from the same water bowl as our pups and eating her meals with them, together. She loves to play with her toys, rub against the dogs, and cuddle with them on their beds. But best of all, Belle is so incredibly loving. She’s pretty much always cuddled up on our chest, whether we’re on the couch or walking around – she loves to be held and kissed.

I’ve been lucky enough to have the love of four other cats since I was little, and I’ve been around quite a few in my life, and I truly have never seen such a loving cat. She blows my mind daily, and every day is a blessing. I look over at her snuggled up with our pit bull, giving Cambria a bath, and I can’t believe it’s real. Watching her grow up with the pups and experience life in their world while defining her own unique space in it has been the sweetest thing.

I’m amazed every single day by the tiny ways she learns or changes just a little bit, and I feel like she’s growing allll the time! She is such a loving little kitten, just so sweet and affectionate . . . I wish I could freeze time and watch her nuzzle up against the dogs for the first time over and over again.

Belle has green eyes and her hair is mostly grey. Her mama is a beautiful calico with white, black, and copper-brown patches. That’s why you can see white and tan patches in Belle’s hair, too.

I’m pretty lucky she’s so interested in my camera. If you’re wondering about that outfit on the chaise lounge behind Belle, well . . . that may or may not be a cat harness I ordered from Amazon. Don’t judge me. We’re researching it heavily and currently only leaving it around the house and letting her become familiar with it. But if you must know, it’s really hard for me. I am dying to put that pink frilly harness on that adorable wittle furbaby . . . right meow.

Adding Belle to our furbaby fam has been the absolute best, and we are so thankful for her every single second. Now that we have a little bit of hindsight from that weekend, I think God placed her in our life at exactly the right time. We had both just gotten settled in our jobs, and we were both finally in a good place physically and emotionally from everything 2017 has thrown our way. I’m forever the luckiest that Thomas wondered into a Raleigh PetCo one Saturday. This little kitten has been such a joy to us, ya’ll.

Thanks for reading, and as always, leave me a comment with any questions or things you’d like to read about on W&W!