A few weeks ago, one of my biggest dreams came true. As I arrived home from Canton on a Monday night, I was chilling in my living room talking to my mom. In mid-conversation, we heard a little noise coming from the garage. As we sat quietly, it turned out to be a little kitty cat stuck in my garage. As an avid animal lover, this had me pumped up, so I immediately ran out to the garage. To my surprise, there was the cutest little calico kitten sitting on the floor. As I walked out, she ran up to me and purred against my leg, which caused my heart to literally explode. Of course, my first instinct was to cry because it was 20 degrees outside and this kitten was shaking cold. My dad was not as thrilled as my mom and I were, so we then had to put the kitten outside of the garage and act like there wasn’t a little cold kitten sitting outside our house. As I’m sitting and crying in my living room, we hear a yell from my dad. It turned out the cat was staring at him through the glass windows in our front room, continuously meowing. This, of course, made me cry ten times harder than I had before. The kitten finally moved from the front door, and I was in shambles at this point, just praying for this kitty to find a warm home. Then, as my mom and I were both visibly upset, this kitten showed up at our back glass door, meowing and clawing at the door to be let in. This one definitely put me over the edge, to the point where I had to go to my room because I was crying too much. About 20 minutes later, I came downstairs to find out where she was. To my surprise, my dad ended up making a bed for her in our garage with blankets and milk and decided to let her sleep there for the night. He made sure to let us know that we would not be keeping this kitten. 

The next morning, I woke up and ran down the stairs to see the kitten in the garage. She was sound asleep in her little makeshift bed, and she was so excited to see me. This really broke my heart to see her curled up in a little ball. So I decided to come home at lunch to see her one last time because my dad was taking her to the humane society at one. As I walked in the house, I asked my dad where the kitty was, to which he said, “out and about.” This really threw me for a loop because I didn’t know what that particularly meant. I was just sitting and eating my lunch, and she showed up in the glass window in our kitchen. Of course, I started jumping up and down trying to see her one last time. My dad came out and was very suspicious; it turned out the cat had actually been chased up the tree by my dog.. She was so high in this tree that my dad called the fire department, and they were on their way. By this time, I was leaving for school, so I said goodbye to her. She made it very difficult because she would not leave my side and kept trying to get in my car. I eventually had to pull a heist to get out of there. When I got to school, I texted him again, asking what the plan was with her. He had replied with a picture of a shopping cart filled with cat food and litter. The message below it read, “She has a vet appointment next week.” At this point, I was searching for names for her on Google, trying to find the best-fit name for her. When the school day was over, I ran home to see her. She greeted me by sunbathing and immediately ran to me when I got out of my car. I figured this meant we were keeping her because my dad isn’t typically seen just hanging out with animals outside. I was in fact right, and we got to keep the kitty.

It is now a few weeks later, and she is set up in her new house. She rules the place because we are all mostly scared of her since she stands her ground more than we can. My family decided on the name Willow for her, but my dad calls her Rocky. Why? We’re not really sure, but we just let it slide because we are happy to have her. She can be so sweet and lovely, but she is also hilarious to watch. I am just extremely happy to have a new little pet hanging around. We are all convinced she decided to pick the house with two animal-loving women and one non-animal-loving guy; it just outweighs it. She picks a favor for me, and she loves snuggling me and then biting me. But it’s honestly worth it. She is definitely still adjusting to my two dogs, who are scared of her, but they’ll grow on each other. Anyway, that is how Willow came to be and how much of an impact a vulnerable teenage girl can have on her dad.