The 4 T's Adventure through Life: Batman & Princess

It was 13 years ago in March that I found two day old kittens in a crushed box on the side of the street. I remember hearing meowing, walking across the street, and then seeing the box and inside were these two tiny kittens with their umbilical cords still attached. Of course, I couldn’t leave them there, so I brought them home. It was late at night, so I didn’t want to bring them in the house. I woke up my brother and told him what I had found. Since they were crying we decided to leave them outside and in the morning we would bring them in the house and tell my parents what I had found. We were the house that all the stray animals found, so I was pretty confident that my parents would allow me to keep the kittens. Sure enough in the morning my parents said yes, but I was to take care of them. At the time, we had two cats, Tiffany and Tiger. I was pretty sure Tiffany and Tiger weren’t going to like to two new additions to the family.

The first order of business was to start feeding the kittens. I fed them animal formula and condensed milk through a syringe. I had to feed them every few hours from the syringe. Since they were only a few days old and their Mom wasn’t there to clean up after them, I had to wash them every time they went the bathroom. It was so gross those first few days, they would just go poop or pee wherever they were and it was all over them. There were cute things about them, my favorite part was when they had just finished eating and their stomachs were like big balloons, so cute.

After a few days (or maybe it was weeks, it was a blur) of around the clock feeding and bathing I decided on names for the kittens. I come from a family of T’s, but I decided to break that tradition. I named the boy cat Batman because he is all black with yellow eyes and named the girl cat Princess because she always acted so prissy when it came to bath time.

There were many sleepless nights for me, but it didn’t take long for them to start getting stronger, eat on their own, and use the litter box. I still bathed them quite regularly. Batman loved the water, Princess not so much. They were usually confined to my room where I would set up barriers for them, which they eventually learned to climb over. Tiffany and Tiger kept their distance from them and I think they were glad the cats stayed in my room. They didn’t want them in their territory. When Batman and Princess were finally able to roam the house as they pleased without me worrying about them getting stuck somewhere and not being able to get out, Tiffany and Tiger were friendly.

Just a year and a half after finding Batman and Princess, Tim and I got married and moved across the country to Connecticut. There was no doubt about it, the cats were a package deal, and they were moving with us to Connecticut. It was an adventure in the Ryder truck with them. They both had separate carriers, which we would later decide when traveling they could travel in one carrier. The carriers took up so much space on the bench seat of the truck that Tim and I were squished. The cats were already taking over our lives. I am sure Tim was thinking what did he get himself into with these two cats. When we would stop along the way I would put their leashes on and take them for walks. There was one time when I was letting them roam around by the truck and Princess being the scardy cat that she is jumped up in the wheel well and we had a heck of a time getting her out of there. That was Princess, getting herself stuck somewhere. We learned quickly that at hotels we would have to block the back of the bed off because they would get up and under the bed. It made for a long morning getting out of the hotel and on the road. We eventually made it to Connecticut, set up our apartment and the cats settled into their new home.

Batman has never had any trouble making any place his home, but Princess it takes her a VERY long time to feel comfortable. It was months before she would get out from under the bed during the day and roam around. She would roam around at night, but when there were people in the apartment, she was under the bed. I don’t think many people saw Princess while we lived in Connecticut, but they all got to know friendly Batman.

When we would go home to California for a few weeks during the holidays we would bring the cats with us. The first time we traveled with them was Christmas time and we flew through Pittsburgh during a storm. Our flight got cancelled and we spent a night at a hotel. I had given them sedatives, but only had enough for the flights, not the extra night in a hotel. It was a nightmare to say the least. When traveling, people rarely realized that we were traveling with the cats because their carrier looked just like a bag you would carry on. The only time people would notice was when they wouldn’t shut up with their crying on the plane. The engine kind of masked their crying, but there were times when I was rethinking the decision of bringing them with us. Towards the end of our stay in Connecticut when we would travel we would leave them home and a friend would take care of them. It was so much easier on everyone. When we moved back to California my Mom traveled home with them, so they won’t have to travel in the moving truck. I am sure Batman and Princess were thankful that they didn’t have to be put through that again.

Once we moved back to California we moved around a few times before buying our house. Each time we moved I could tell Princess was bitter and would find the most ridiculous place to hide during the day. Batman could careless where he lived as long as he had me and some food he was fine. This 4th of July we are going on our 7^th year in our house and Princess still hides under the bed everyday and Batman still lays where he is not supposed to, climbs up on the counter, and loves to lay on me when I am falling asleep.

I am pretty sure they love their life and are happy I found them that night. They have lived a good life, traveled across the country a few times and are loved so much. I know they can’t live forever and when the time comes for them to pass on, it will be one of the hardest days of my life, I know this, and I will miss them so much. They have been great companions for all these years. Even though there have been times (ok several years) when Batman cried almost every night to be fed and all I wanted to do was open the door and let him outside to find new place to live, I would never change one moment of my life with them. I love them so much and they prepared me a bit for being a Mom to Trent. I was their Mom first and I think I did a pretty good job with them.

Batman always finds a great place to lay.