a kitten named Kismet

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

This is a long story, but something I like to share.
Sometimes being in the right place at the right time is maybe more than a coincidence.
Sometimes something that is no big deal to you has a higher purpose.

So I’m running late for work. My niece had stopped by with the baby and of course I had to spend some time with my grand-nephew.
I’m flying down a country road, trying to wipe the baby puke off my shoulder and I see something moving on the side of the road up ahead.
I know it’s not a leaf, the wiggling isn’t random enough.
As I whiz on past I can tell by the too big wobbly head that it’s a baby something and it’s getting awfully close to traffic.

So I turn around and drive back, I can’t find it and think maybe I imagined it and turn around. I whiz on past it again, and yes it is a baby and it’s heading into traffic.
So I go back, go past it again, turn around and spot it up ahead and pull over.

It’s a kitten, a tiny fits in the palm of my hand, eyes not yet opened, calico kitten.
How in the hell got out in the middle of nowhere I don’t know.
I look around and don’t see any more kittens or a mama cat.
She lets out the most pitiful cry and when I pull her closer to me she starts sucking on my shirt.

Now what am I supposed to do? The nearest pet store to get formula and bottles is miles away. I’m already late. I can’t leave her in my truck while I walk dogs, it’s the middle of August, 98 degrees out, she will never survive.
Then I remember the vet’s office a few miles back and I know the vet, so I rush back and luckily catch the vet on her way out to lunch.
I did a lot of promising that I would be back if she could just hold onto the kitten until I walk some dogs and buy some formula. I promise that I will not dump the kitten on her. She agrees and as I hand over the kitten it pukes sticky black gunk on my shirt.
The vet says that doesn’t look good but she will do what she can.

I rush off to work. The vet calls to tell me the kitten has been fed and is doing fine. The black stuff was road dirt she had sucked up, she was so hungry. I say I’ll be back to get her and the vet says no rush.

I name the kitten Kismet.

I finish walking the dogs and since the vet said no hurry, I rush on over to another dog I need to walk. That way when I pick up the kitten I’m done for the day and can devote my time to her.
I also stop by the house to put on a clean shirt, after all I have dried baby puke on my shoulder, dried kitty puke on my chest and did I mention I was walking dogs in 98 degrees?

I warned you this was long.

When I get back to the vet there’s a woman standing at the counter filling out some forms and we get to talking.
She tells me about her house burning down and how she lost all of her cats and a few dogs in the fire. She was there getting copies of the rabies certificates for the surviving dogs so she could renew their tags.
She has her two grandsons there with her, they look to be about 5 and 6, and how she had hoped to be there earlier in the day but they had held her up.
So I tell her about the kitten I found and how weird it was to find a kitten in the road like that.
When the vet brings the kitten out everybody in the office wants to see her, especially the two little boys.

The woman asks me if I’d like to give the kitten away because she misses her cats and she’d love to take the kitten if I was willing. We talk a while longer and the two little boys are just staring at the kitten, and you can tell they really really want her.
I start thinking about having to get up very two hours and how I’m already so busy that I don’t have time to think, and how will my dog accept a cat in the house.
So I ask them if they really want the kitten. They both nod yes and I said if its okay with your grandmoth… They both jumped up, one grabbed the kitten, the other the formula and off they went running out
the door.

The grandmother walks out and then comes back in laughing and said the boys went to hide in the car because they were afraid I would change my mind.
I said there was no way I’d do that to kids.

So I went home without my Kismet, but I knew she was going to a good, loving home.

But this isn’t the end of the story.

A few weeks later the vet calls and tells me the woman who took the kitten wants me to call her.
So I call and am happy to hear that the kitten is alive and well. Her eyes are open, she’s super sweet and very attached to the younger of the two boys. She followed him everywhere. He took it upon himself to be responsible for the kitten and set his alarm for very two hours and alternated between waking his mother and his grandmother to feed the kitten. She was his cat, they were good buddies, and the family was very thankful to me for giving her to them.

I thought that is all very nice and I’m glad the kitten is happy in a good home but it was no big deal to give her to them. I’m just glad it all worked out.

Ok I promise we are almost at the end of the story here.

Then the grandmother lowers her voice and she says, no you really don’t understand just how much the kitten means to my family and how much we thank you.
You see, the little boy is the one who accidentally started the fire, playing with matches.
He was so upset at what he had done, guilty about starting the fire, blamed himself for killing the cats and dogs that had died in the fire. He had been depressed and wanted to die so he could go to heaven to be with his beloved pets.
Of course none of the adults blamed him, he was a child.
All I could think is how horrible it must be for a small boy to carry around so much guilt.

Having the kitten turned him around. Now he had a purpose, a kitten to care for and he was back to being the happy little boy he was before.

For that his family was grateful.

I’m not religious, I don’t believe in what people call God.
But I do believe that every decision made that day, from playing with my grand-nephew for too long, to stopping to change my shirt, to catching the vet just in time, to the grandmother bringing her grandsons with her and running late, everyone of those choices came together because a little boy was meant to have that kitten.

2

Kismet means destiny.

3

Very sweet story. I do believe in God, so I’d agree with you this was meant to happen, we just disagree on what drove that meaning. :slight_smile:

4

They changed her name, but I think the named I picked fit.

5

I think it’s the one event that has kept me from being a full fledged atheist.

6

Nice story. (Thanks for making me tear up at my new job! :slight_smile: )

7

Sweet story. I have one not as dramatic, but somewhat similar.

The dogs were kicking up a ruckus outside one night, so I went out to see what they were barking at. There, high up in a lilac bush, was a tiny tabby kitten. I brought her in and she’s very sweet (of course - they’re always very sweet when they’re trying to infest your heart). I call the vets office to make an appointment to get her first shots. Maybe I’ll finally have a barn cat! (I have two cats that were supposed to be barn cats but like the waterbed better)

I went to the vet and she got her first shots. I had her crate in the car and was going back in to pay when this nice young couple with a little girl and two healthy dogs come out. I said, “You know what your family needs to complete it? A kitten!” and show them the kitten in the crate. They agree that life isn’t complete without a kitten and say they’ll adopt her. I walked with the mom back into the vet’s office. I told them I’d prepay for her spay. They protested that they’d be glad to pay when the time comes, but I said they’d have the rest of her life to pay for her vet bills, and I’d cover this. As the mom and I are walking into the vet’s office, she told me that the family cat, a female tabby, had just died that morning, and the daughter didn’t know yet. They picked her up from school and went together to the vet’s to pick up the dogs. This kitten looked just like the one they’d lost. I was there in the right place at the right time.

StG

8

Aww man, you guys are making me tear up and I have garlic all over my hands.
Yeah, THAT’S why my eyes are burning.

9

beautiful story. :slight_smile:

10

Okay, not as touching but a story involving animals and fate. I was in a pet store that primarily carried fish and rodents and noticed a cat in a rather small cage. It was a forlorn little thing and oddly colored, sort of a brown and black brindle color. I asked if I could hold it, and the clerk got it out and handed it to me and said it ended up there because it had been thrown out of a truck window at a construction site nearby.

While I was holding the cat – okay, this is weird – I hear a voice, inside my head, say “Cindy”. I was wondering if I heard what I thought I heard, and again, a quiet, yet definite voice said, “Cindy” . The only person I could think of at that time was a woman I knew casually from doing volunteer work together. I handed the cat back to the clerk, left the store, and called her.

She agreed to come look at the cat and, with some reservations, agreed to take it. It turned out she had lost a cat a few months back so there was room for this kitty, but she was concerned about how her dog would take to it. I insisted on following her home to help with the introduction.

We walked in her front door and I was surprised to see her dog was the exact same strange brindle color as the cat. And we were both surprised when I put the cat down and, with no drama whatsoever, the cat and dog began playing as if they had lived together for a long time. Awwwwww.

11

Awww! Yeah, the voice in the head thing is weird, but it has happened to me a few times. Always listen :wink: Well, as long as it seems harmless, lol.

12

Here’s an animal story of coincidences.

My mom and I were out in the back throwing some trash away, when a lady came down the alley. She stopped and told us she was searching for her lost dog. We shrugged. We hadn’t seen any dogs roaming around. She told us her address, and asked if we saw any unattached little dogs, to let her know.

A couple of days later, as I was towing some laundry home from the laundromat in a handcart, an older lady stopped me on the sidewalk, and told me she had found a dog and was trying to think of a way to find it a home. I remembered the other lady, and told the stranger of the address, which we both went to, but nobody had lost a dog there.

I told the stranger to wait while I took my laundry home, (it was just up the street.) and while there I phoned my mom at work. She told me the address that the searching lady had left, and I had gotten mixed up. The address was for a block up the street.

Together, the stranger and I went to the other address and sure enough, they had lost a dog. The three of us went to the stranger’s house several blocks away where the dog was in the backyard. The dog instantly recognized its owner, and went into a frenzy of ecstatic tail wagging. In fact, the dog immediately wet itself, it was so excited to see its lost owner.

Everyone went home very very happy.

I’ve never forgotten just how unlikely the events were that had lined up to reunite that dog and its owner. My mom and I just happened to be out back throwing garbage away when the owner came by who just happened to ask us, and give us her address. The other lady just happened to stop me on the street as I was carrying laundry home. My mom just happened to remember the address better than I did. And this wasn’t in some village where everybody knows everybody else. This was in big anonymous Chicago, and it happened between strangers.

I don’t think God was behind it, but just the same…

13

I’m loving these stories. :slight_smile: I don’t have one to share, though. So I’ll add a funny:

“The Circle-K Pig”

So, my sister and I were both working construction cleanup, and left for work about 5 a.m. This was in the winter, and it was still dark and cold out at that time. We got in the car, still bleary-eyed from sleep <hey, the job didn’t require being MENTALLY awake> and pulled into Circle-K, the only car in the lot.

We went in the door, made a beeline for the coffee, and I asked my sister "So…did YOU see a pig sitting by the door as we came in, wearing a shirt that said “Bite Me?”

She blinked, nodded. We paid for our coffee, went outside, and stared at the pot-bellied pig sitting there wearing a black t-shirt that said “Bite Me”. We stuck our heads back inside, the clerk just shrugged. Now, my sister takes in EVERY LAST ANIMAL SHE SEES THAT LOOKS LOST OR HURT, so I knew what was gonna happen next.
We brought him home. We shared a place, along with her husband, just a block away; we figured we’d bring the pig home, he could be warm, and we’d find his owner after work.

Once in the house, the pig starts running around grunting and sniffing through the house.
My sister’s bedroom was in the basement, with a door that opened up the stairs into the kitchen.
And of course MrSis came through the door in a bathrobe, bleary-eyed, just woken up himself. And sees a pot-bellied pig, wearing a black t-shirt saying “Bite Me” on it, running around the place. He goes to the coffee-maker, starts coffee, goes to the bathroom. Doesn’t say a word. Comes OUT of the bathroom, looks at the pig again, shrugs. pours coffee. “At this point, nothing surprises me,” was all he said.

The animal belonged to a couple a few blocks away, we found out. Cute pig!