Gobsmacked*. That's what I was. There's no other word for it.
I wrote yesterday about the abduction of our cat from our back yard by a brazen coyote. Read that first.
TingTing was one of a litter of nine kittens born to a stray that was taken in by the local vet. She was the smallest of the bunch and while her mother and the other kittens were jet black, she was a dark grey. We waited until she could be weaned from her mother and then took her home.
We already had the big male Mimi and he was none-too-pleased to see another cat in his domain. We kept her isolated in the laundry room at first in an enclosure I had cobbled together from a few bits of wood.
She was not fully weaned when we acquired her and as such we bottle fed her while introducing solid food as well.
Wanting to be a good daddy to our new pet I did a little research on the Internet. They suggested that in order to ease the transition you should put a small stuffed animal in the bed with your kitten to alleviate any loneliness. I only had one small stuffed toy at the time; a gift from my neice JoJo.
Up until the day she was taken from us this toy stayed beside her bed. She never really played with it or anything and I have no idea whether she took any comfort from its presence but even so it had become a fixture. I had come to think of it as her protector.
The day after TingTing was taken from us I walked into our bedroom to get dressed when I spotted her little bed there and was litterally gobsmacked by irony. Here is a picture of her protector.
Dave
Just because I can...
*gobsmacked. Dictionary.com. WordNet® 3.0. Princeton University. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gobsmacked (accessed: July 26, 2007).