Introducing Wave

This is admittedly pretty old news by now, but we’ve just been letting our new addition settle in to the household gradually before introducing him to the blogosphere.

After our cat, Milo, died in May, we sort of thought we would not get another cat for a while.  We decided that River would now be an only cat, and after he passed, we would probably adopt two littermates together. 

River had other ideas though.  In the days after Milo’s passing, he searched through the house and howled incessantly.  He was restless, needy, lonely, and inconsolable.  On top of our already broken hearts, it was gut-wrenching listening to his cries of despair as well, and not knowing how to comfort him.  We pet and cuddled him more, pulled out more cat toys, played with him more, but everyone who knew us said the same thing: “That cat needs a friend.”

River loved Milo so much that I thought showing up with a new cat would be like trying to replace a grieving person’s lost spouse.  Over time we realized that even though we’d never find another Milo, perhaps River, and we, would benefit from some more feline companionship.

So, we decided to visit the Humane Society of Huron Valley one Saturday afternoon, “just to look.”  We told the greeter that we were interested in an adult cat, not a kitten, but that we weren’t determined to necessarily get one – we needed to find the absolute right one.

Well, “Vinnie the Paw” made that decision for us.  We entered the first communal cat room, Lowell picked up a cat feather toy, and a chubby grey and white cat launched himself from his perch and immediately started playing.  Most cats remained curled in the beds.  A few showed passing interest in us and the toy, then moved on.  But Vinnie played with us, curled up on our laps, rubbed against us, and didn’t leave our sides for the entire 45 minutes we were there.  OK, we decided that was settled, grabbed his adoption card, and headed up front to fill out the paperwork.

Vinnie was recovering from a nasty upper respiratory infection, so he spent the first few weeks in our house isolated from River until we were sure he was no longer contagious.  Every day we would spend quiet time with just him, and discovered just what a delightful personality he has.  He is very affectionate, and demands attention by sitting up and waving his paws in the air.  It was a trait that we immediately found endearing, and earned him his name:  Wave.  Just so happens that it goes quite nicely with River.

Over the next month or two, we gradually integrated him into the household, and were relieved to find that he and River are quite compatible.  They will never be constant companions like River and Milo were, but they seem to enjoy one another’s presence and frequently hang out together.  At night, I catch them snuggled together at the foot of the bed.  Wave seems perfectly at home in his new forever home, and much to our relief, River’s mood and behavior returned to normal.

It is slightly disconcerting, and completely coincidental, that we ended up with another grey and white cat.  Sure, Milo had long fur, and had a creamy tan color blended in with his grey, but it is similar enough to be a little creepy the first few times we would spot Wave out of the corner of our eye, perched in a spot where Milo used to frequent.  But he is very much his own character, and we feel very fortunate that we found each other at a time when we all were in need of a little more love and nurturing.  Welcome home, Wave.