Our Beloved Cat Tito was Found Passed Away on Our Kitchen Floor and His Death is Unknown: A Personal

I write this with the heaviest of hearts. On Tuesday May 22nd 2018 my vacation was unexpectedly cut short. We were not prepared for the news we were about to get from our pet sitter. Our beloved Tito was found passed away on our kitchen floor and his death is unknown.

Zack and I adopted our first pet, Ingrid, in fall of 2016. We had just moved to Denver May 2016 and I was committed to adopting a pet. We are both cat and dog lovers so cats, being the “easier” pet to care for especially when traveling (so we assumed) we were on the lookout.

I went the Denver Cat Co on Tennyson street to work. There they have 8-9 cats running (or hiding) and all of them are adoptable, well unless there is already an adoption pending. I had gone a couple of times alone and then I knew I had to bring Zack.

There was this tuxedo cat named Sylvester. He was about 5 years old and playful. I liked the idea of adopting an adult kitty because kittens always get scooped up, at least I thought they were preferred.

When Zack and I went on a Saturday early afternoon together, Sylvester was still there and so was a little 3 month old kitten named Ingrid.

She was snuggled up on a chair and I was petting her. She woke up and her curiosity took over and she began walking from the chair to the top of the table. She made a risky move extending herself forward with her hind legs on the back of the chair and her front paws on some books. Did she make it across?

Not quite. Her little kitten-ness got her into a little slip up, she stumbled because the weight of her teeny, tiny body made the books slide and she fell. She caught her self and was able to get back to all fours no problem.

Kittens are resilient.

I posted up at that seat she walked across and so by the time she brushed off her fall, she made her way back to the seat then up on the table and nestled right on my laptop.

She claimed me, right then and there.

I wrapped my arms around her, looked at Zack with big glassy eyes. I didn’t have to verbally let him know what my body language was already telling him: please let me take her home.

Sure enough, he was just as smitten for this kitten, only he insisted if we put in an application to adopt little Ingrid, that we have to take Sylvester home too. They would be siblings and play with each other and be the best of friends.

As I filled out the adoption papers for what would be my very first pet that I owned I got word that I was the first one to submit papers for her. She had only been there since that Thursday. Glad I made moves as soon as I did because unlike Ingrid who had no papers, Sylvester already was spoken for by 2 other people. I was the third one to submit adoption papers for him.

Applying and adopting a cat is not as easy as sign, seal deliver. There are screenings. You need too have references, and show you’re a good candidate. I feel like I shine pretty brightly on paper and I told elaborate stories about how I would create the dream life for my newly adopted kitty, Ingrid if I were lucky enough to take her home.

By the following Wednesday, I was back at the cat cafe with a brand new blue cat carrier. I was going to be Ingrid’s mom.

Life with a 3 month old kitten comes with plenty of kitten shenanigans. I have so many videos and pictures and endless memories of Ingrid running up our curtain,

running wildly across our comforter.

She practiced her hunting skills on my duvet-covered limbs.

She was acrobatic, doing 360’s and gainers off our bed.

She even played fetch.

Basically, what Im trying to show is that Ingrid had energy! How can I keep up with it? What was the best way to make that dream life for my cat come to fruition?

Well, if you know me , you know my favorite things in life is family & family dinners. Having siblings myself I know the bond is the best feeling in the world and it was decided. Ingrid was getting a brother.

The quest for Tito began.

So this may not be looked highly upon but when Zack and I decided we needed to extend our family and have a second cat, we wanted a boy. Okay, I especially wanted a boy. Call me crazy, but I was trying to mimic my own brothers and sister line up: girl, boy, boy, girl.

Since Ingrid was female, my next pet would be a male cat and I did want to adopt a kitten. The search began as the first one had on pet finder, and I knew the cat cafe was also just a 15 minute drive away.

I began looking in the search query of petfinder.com for ‘male’ + ‘kitten’ in Denver. It wasn’t as plentiful of a results page as I had thought. It was January and that’s a bit far from what is known as “kitten season”. But I knew when I saw the little kittle I wanted to meet that it would be an instant Yes.

But wait, why look for a cat online and then go adopt? Why not go to the adoption clinics themselves and find a kitty there. Simply put, I can’t make decisions if I’m caught up in the feels. Something needs to be objective to help me process.

Ingrid and I had an immediate connection at the cat cafe but that was a little different because she was the first pet. I wanted to make it easier on myself and by saying yes to a kitten beforehand, I knew it would make it easier to say no to other kittens. It would be so much more difficult to “choose” if I didn’t already know ahead of time.

Anyways, that was a long way of saying I knew what I wanted and wanted to follow a system. This system involved pet finder, screen shots, text messages to Zack while he was at work “look a this little dude”.

We ended up finally finding 3 adoptable kittens all in “Denver” 2 orange kittens and 1 black and white one, named Tito.

Did we want another orange kitty? Ingrid was the literal best so maybe the orange -cat genes also mean a great personality. But Tito was so cute with his little black nose and white gloves for paws. We were honestly just looking at pictures and names.

But then I thought, wait, I want a second kitty for Ingrid to have a brother. Do I want to separate 2 brothers so I could have a brother-sister cat duo? Immediately I was like nope, we’re submitting an application to adopt the little Tuxedo cat named Tito.

I got an email back almost immediately. This was great! That was when we found out that little Tito was actually in Oklahoma under foster care with the Miami Animal Alliance.Then I got pictures sent over of what he looked like when he was first found in the engine of a car and a few more of him from present day, playing and posing for pictures by his foster parents.

The Miami Animal Alliance in Oklahoma partners with a few denver area shelters so people who live in Denver can adopt some of the poor unfortunate strays of Oklahoma. Apparently OK has really poor pet regulations. They are not as on top of the animal birth control methods as other states, so there is an abundance of adoptable kitties and doggies.

The Miami Animal Alliance drives all of the pets who have been spoken for to a place in Aurora and there is this great big party to celebrate Gotcha Day!

Gotcha Day is the day most celebrated between parents and adopted pets because typical birth dates are unknown when you #adoptdontshop .

I went through the same screening process I did with Ingrid only I had to arrange for Zack to pick up little Tito on February 13th because I was in Florida. Wow, just realized how full circle that is. I was in Florida the day we brought Tito home and I was in Florida the day Tito died.

Back to the happier times, Zack was FaceTiming me from the event while he was looking for Tito. Miami Animal Alliance also had a facebook Live going on their facebook page to show all of the families taking home their new family members. Dogs were barking, cats were meowing. Tito was especially chatty.

When Zack was taking Tito into his arms to put him in the carrier, he was surely spooked by the commotion, which makes sense. Tito was no more than 4 pounds and had endured a long drive. But when Zack got the tiny tuxedo kitty in our cat carrier and into the car, he called me and let me know they were on their way home and would FaceTime when Ingrid and Tito met.

I have so many screen shots of that night. I will never forget sitting on my parents couch and taking screen shot after screen shot of both Tito and of Ingrid.