A husband and wife from Idaho already had one cat at home, but then they thought they needed a second.
They came to Happy Jack Cats, Inc. to find a kitten.
Manager Emily Sullivan showed the couple three kittens recently brought in from the suburbs after finding them near the body of a mother cat who had been hit by a car.
The kittens were named Artemis (a mottled kitty), Hercules (a black boy) and Apollo.
«When we entered their room, the kittens were running and playing on the floor. The couple immediately loved Artemis, and she immediately climbed onto their laps,» Emily says.
After the couple expressed that they were definitely taking Artemis, Emily went to find a carrier for them, and then she put it on the floor in the kitten enclosure and put a blanket there. Then she started catching Artemis to put her in the carrier.
It was very late, about 10 p.m., and the lighting in the cage was weak. Finally Emily caught Artemis, cuddled her, and put her in the carrier.
«When they came in, one of them looked at Artemis in the carrier, and then I looked in there myself to make sure everything was okay. I saw her mottled face and told her, ‘Goodbye, be a good girl.’ Then I walked the couple out and closed the door behind them.»
A little later Emily received a text message from the couple. They texted that they were driving home and that Artemis was purring very loudly in the carrier. Emily assumed that meant the cat was doing well.
But when the couple arrived at their house and opened the carrier with Artemis, they were surprised to find a «stowaway!» in it. It was Hercules the kitten, and Artemis was lying next to him, cuddling and so purring loudly.
Hercules is black and apparently he climbed into the carrier while Emily was catching Artemis, and then because of the gloom in the room and his dark coat color, neither Emily nor the spouses noticed him in the carrier.
«They called me and started the dialogue with, ‘You won’t believe what we saw.’ I got worried and asked «Is something wrong?» and that’s when they told me about Hercules the kitten. I gave them a bunch of apologies and told them that I would specifically wait for them tomorrow morning to drop Hercules off at the shelter.
The couple agreed and they took over the care of the extra kitten for the night. Emily was getting ready to meet them in the morning, but they suddenly called and said they were changing their minds.
«They just said they had time to love Hercules and that he was very cute. And so they would take him, too. All I said was, ‘Wow! It wasn’t at all what they had planned, but it’s totally fine now and they’re very happy.»
As for the kitten Apollo, who was left at the shelter, he was taken home 12 days later by another family. Emily is very happy that everything worked out so well for the three of them.
