In June, before midsummer, I was browsing the cat adoption websites like I usually do, when one application caught my eye. It was a midnight black kitty with yellow green eyes, looking to be the only cat in a family since he had hard time with other cats. The story hit me since basically the cat is introvert among its own species, much like I am amongst humans.

I felt strongly about the cat, and proceeded to sending an application to adopt him. Somehow I knew I had to send the email. I answered a bunch of questions the website recommended to answer, and hoped for the best.

It didn't take long for the foster home to answer, and we arranged a meeting couple of weeks later. We headed to a city 300 kilometers from our home to meet a cat we might not even get, but we really wanted to get this one and decided to make it a fun road trip no matter what. 

When we first arrived to the foster home, we were greeted by the sweet woman I had been emailing with about the possible adoption. And right after her, the little black kitty came to see us. I haven't often seen cat being as curious about complete strangers, and after giving him snacks provided by his foster mama, he was both of our friend already. Couple of hours we spent talking to the foster mama and getting to know the kitty. It was heart-warming to see how well we got along with the cat, and I was very interested to hear all the cat stories the foster mama had to tell us. I can definitely say it was the most pleasant interview I've ever been to. 

We also got to meet three other cats, one looking for home and two whose furever home the foster home is. After visiting there, and watching countless hours of foster cat streams, I have to give huge respect to all the people fostering animals and giving their all to find them all loving homes. It's such an important work to do, especially because it's mostly volunteer work with no pay. It's like a lifestyle, it seems.

After getting home from the meeting, we were excited but also nervous, since there was no certainty of to who the kitten would go to. There were other good homes interested in him too. But the following morning I got a text at work saying we were chosen to be his furever home. 

I was over the moon, and literally cried out of happiness. I would have my first pet as an adult, first ever cat and I would be giving home to a cat whose life hasn't started out the best.

Since that day, we have been planning and buying stuff to get our home ready for the new family member. I was recommended Zooplus by few different people, so that's where I placed the biggest orders. It's European, trusted company, and the price-quality ratio of the items seems appropriate. People have also written many reviews under the items so it's easy to see if something is good or not. 

I asked quite many things about the care of the little creature from the foster mama, as she knows him well and knows what he likes and is used to in the foster home. I asked anything from what litter I should use to which salmon oil his fur needs. And anything I'd need to know when making purchases for him. She has been such a big help for us and I could not be more grateful. She's most welcome to visit us and the little one whenever she happens to visit the city we live in. 

Couple of days after we learned we would be cat parents, we started buying all the things needed for the little fur baby to feel like home at our place. In the first package, we got the litter box, food bowls, toys, travel box and so on.

In the second order, we brought home litter, dry food, wet food, and few knicknacks still missing. And lastly, we ordered scratching post/cat tree.



We also had to make the balcony cat proof. That meant buying a plastic board to cover a huge hole our balcony had on the side, as well as getting a cat proof net since we don't have glass all over the balcony. Of course we're still not planning leaving him outside without a guardian, because cats are such escape artists. I couldn't handle him running away.

Preparing the home for the kitten was a project, but luckily quite an easy one. And doing it bit by bit made the waiting time (which was 7 weeks) feel not that long. The reason we dragged it out for that long was because my summer vacation started on 13th of August, and we had a trip planned from 21st to 25th, and I didn't feel comfortable whisking the cat into a completely new environment to then leave him there alone for a week. Which I explained to the foster mama who was so understanding about it. I felt good about our fur baby being in a place where somebody loves to take care of him until we could pick him up and bring him home.

On 26th of August, we finally headed to a roadtrip to bring the baby home. We made sure we ate and all before picking the tiny one up so that his time in the carrier would be as short as possible. I was going to be three long travel hours nevertheless, so all the minutes we could get off from that were important. The cat was restless at first, but with the help of some calming spray the foster mom put on the travel blanket, he settled down in 30 minutes or so, laying down in an hour and actually falling asleep after 2 hours in the car. When we stopped the car in our parking lot, he woke up and hissed at me because we disturbed the catnap.

In the apartment, he was a bit hesitant to come out of the carrier, and when he finally did, he darted under the sofa and wasn't about to come out. So we let him calm down a bit, and brought out treats in case he would agree to have some. That did the trick. First came a paw to swipe the treat under the sofa, but once I made a little trail of treats he finally followed that and came to check out the new mama, daddy and home. And that started his adventure in the new furever home.

I'll tell you more about this bundle of joy once he's more settled and I get to know him more. So stay tuned for a proper introduction post in the near future. I plan also talking about the adoption process from the organization I chose and adopting a pet in whole a bit in its own post.