Just a 48-year-old mom of 2 in Northern California. My kids are Monkey Monkey(MM) and Drama Llama (DL). I am married to Monkey Hubby (MH). Pet loss, and grief, go hand in hand with crazy Murphy years from hell. In this household. Sure, a bad few weeks happen. But given past history, I am bracing myself. 2026 so far is some crazy combo of 2013 & 2018. I think 2018 was more absurd, but 2013 was more general Murphy and very expensive.
Thank goodness for that cash gift from my in-laws. The $10K is long gone, re: emergency ER spending (human and pet). I am of course grateful. But I am also frustrated because we didn't do the boring thing. We didn't put it mostly to retirement or the mortgage. We didn't put it to planned spending. I am trying to decrease our savings and spend more (on something fun or things we want). It's just not happening.
I do appreciate it is early in the year. We get the memo, there is nothing fun happening this year.
Anyway, like most of the past decade, I give up on filling in any details. Just picking back up in the here and now.
In addition to unexpected chaos and a lot of Murphy... I questioned my life choices for a bit when we got a new fur baby. He started out way extreme scared and then he had some steam to blow off (so he was very wild for a time). I think he is settling into a happy medium.
Note: He ripped off the felt covering on this ball. *sigh*
He does have a little patch of white fur on his chest. So at least I can tell him apart from my last black cat (in some pictures, anyway). My last black cat was regal. This one is a silly boy.
MH was drawn to him because he sounded like some middle ground between our last two cats. He is more of a snuggly lap cat. & I mean, he appeared to be more shy/timid like my regal girl. But I don't think he is shy. Like our Siamese, he is very brave and friendly. He was just scared. His family could no longer care for him. 😔
We decided early on that he is probably 1.25. Not 2.25. He is very kitten-y. There are typos all over his paperwork. In fact, I cleaned up my email yesterday and there was an entirely different birth date given to the microchip company. What!? So he is either 1.5 (that matches the microchip info), 2.25, 1.25, or 11. We were going with 1.25 (he shared my birth day and month) but I now we have two different sources that say he is 1.5. That is probably the most accurate. Probably his last family adopted him when he was 3 months old.
MH pressured me the weekend we picked up this cat. It is what it is. The following weekend it would have been over. I had my eye on an adorable Snowshoe. I lurv him! But it was way too soon. (I can't believe no one has adopted him yet). That rescue is a little extreme. I get it. They never want these cats to go through this again. But they pretty much want your firstborn child, before you can even meet the cat. I just presumed it was way too soon and he would be adopted quickly. In the end, the extreme rescue showcased several cats in public the following weekend. You could meet that cat without filling out a 10-page application first. The more chill rescue that we did adopt from, the following week they had a Tortie/Siamese mix. If I had just waited one week I probably would have ended up with another blue eyed beauty. So yes, MH definitely pressured me. But he knew it was just a matter of time. & was tired about hearing all the homeless cats I didn't want quite yet.
If we wanted to go the frugal route we could have waited a few more weeks. The shelter was empty early on but starting to fill up more. Kitten season is just starting. Last time we lost our pet in March? & adopted end of April. Everyone was always asking me if my Siamese was a purebred (he probably was). I have no idea, I don't know anything about him but that he was dumped at the shelter. We got him for $5 because the shelter was full and no one wanted him. I know those $5 or even free adoptions are coming up in another 5 weeks or so. But we were probably less price sensitive this time around. & even with all the 2026 chaos, I probably had a lot more bandwith. I don't have small kids and I am not working every Saturday, like I did the last time we lost a cat this time of year. Because of that, I think it would have been a lot harder to wait. I don't have so many distractions, this time around. (& I have many many distractions.)
I didn't even ask what the adoption fee was (it was not a factor) but it was $100 at the more chill rescue. I think the shelter has a $125 adoption fee.
March 22nd, 2026 at 05:01 pm 1774198880
I think… in an ideal situation, I would like get pets as well. But my situation never seemed ideal for the longest time… or perhaps there will never be an ideal situation, and so maybe what I am I waiting for? Hmmm. Currently still pet-less though, and I also worry about the expenses of it, but I think you guys can understand that.
March 22nd, 2026 at 05:47 pm 1774201679
Hope "Murphy" is distant for the rest of the year.
March 23rd, 2026 at 12:13 pm 1774267991
March 23rd, 2026 at 12:46 pm 1774269996
March 23rd, 2026 at 07:00 pm 1774292416
Shelters are pretty stringent here on the east coast too. As I remember, they did a home visit when I adopted my 2 last cats. I'm okay with that cus there are many irresponsible people who really shouldn't have a pet for various reasons. I also love Siamese. I grew up with Ming Soo Lee. Ming, for short.
I have been without a pet for I guess a few years now. Hard to believe. Right now, the wild birds I feed are my "pets."
March 25th, 2026 at 01:29 pm 1774445373