Driving Miss Dorothy

Saturday June 4, 2011 5:30 am

Woke up, fell out of bed, dragged a comb across my head. For what it's worth, that is almost exactly how I prepared myself for driving down to Challenger's House to pick up Dorothy, who had been fostered by Robyn Anderson for the previous month after she was found howling under a car in the neighbor's driveway the day after the Alabama tornados. Preparing for Dorothy's arrival was a bit more involved. The night before, I went to Petsmart to buy:

1. A new carrier. I do have a carrier--a small one even, which I bought when I adopted Luanne--but I reasoned that Dorothy wouldn't want to be shut in a hard, plastic carrier with only soybean-sized peepholes to look out of for 6.5 hours. There are vents along the sides and it's roomy, and Dorothy slept and watched me through the vents for the 6 or so hours it took to drive home.
2. Small litter box to put in the back seat, to give her a chance to do her business if needed (it was unneeded).
3. Kitten food, both hard and wet, as well as little bowls for food and water (6.5 hours is a long time for a kid, so why not a kitteh?). Dorothy ate some IAMS hard food, even while I was driving.
4. A bed, JUST in case she was relaxed enough to want to travel Cleopatra style, transported on her own luxurious cushion while snoozing and sampling IAMS kibble outside of the carrier. In fact, Robyn provided a bed that fit in the carrier, so Dorothy hung out on that, which was probably safer than the daydreams I had of a sleepy kitty curled up in a cat bed on the seat next to me while I drove and listened to books on tape. I'm sure this is a scene at some point in a Lifetime movie.

Basically, my car was packed as though I were picking up and/or transporting a child. Car seat? Check! Wet wipes and diapers? Check! Cheerios in a Ziploc? Check! Woobie? Check! Somehow I find it comforting that despite the fact that I don't have (or want) a human child, I am still equipped with a mother's checklist of what is needed to care for and occupy an infant or toddler on a road trip.

Meeting Robyn was wonderful. I've been following her blog now for about a year and it's the first thing I check in the morning for my daily squee. When I first saw Dorothy in person, I was surprised at how small she is! She seems a bit bigger in her pictures, but she really is a tiny thing, all of 2.5 pounds and apparently she is twice the size now that she was when she made herself known. She was pretty freaked out, I think, at first. She went from being a baby wildcat to a fostered (and spoiled, rightfully so!) kitten for a month--no foraging for food, no dodging stray dogs and tornados!--and then I picked her up, put her in my car, and drove for 6.5 hours to a different place with different smells and different cats. WHAT?

Once we arrived back in St. Louis (9:30-ish Saturday night), I installed her in my bedroom and held up Teen Baby and Luanne to the carrier so they could see that there was a new baby. Luanne hissed (expected); Teen Baby sniffed and didn't do anything, which is his version of "Huh. OK." I laid out all of Miss Dorothy's blankets and toys on the bed, which, really, when I saw the amount of toys I was blown away. This baby has been well-loved in the short time she's been "captive."

"WHERE IS MY WARM MILK?!"

She sleeps on the bed with me at night, now forgoing her kitty bed for lying right next to me, all stretched out. During the day when I'm gone, she either sleeps in her baby blue cat bed or on her superstar green blankie.



So far, I think she is adjusting pretty well.