Oui Oui's & Mica Minnie Moo's Gotcha Day & Giveaway

Happy Gotcha Day, Oui Oui and Mica Minnie Moo!  You light up our lives and bring us joy every day.  We just can't imagine our lives without you!  We are delighted to share this day with all our friends, and to have a toy giveaway featuring Creme de la Cat to celebrate!

Our first series of pix after Oui Oui was gotcha'd.

6 years ago, the Girl and the mom went to the shelter with the grands to help them find a new dog after their old dog passed on.  The Girl went in the cat area, which the mom studiously avoided.  Finally, after a dog was found, it was too much, and the mom went in to look the cats over.

There was a little kitten named Goldie crying her heart out.  The mom knew she was lonely and asked to hold her.  As she settled down and purred, a man came up to the mom, telling her what a terrible kitten Goldie was since she had scratched him (of course, she was reaching out and he stuck his finger in then pulled it away).  The mom tried getting others to notice how nice Goldie was, even though that man followed her around making his accusations.  When no one would even look at the kitten, the mom huffed, "I'll just take her myself!"  By coincidence, the same kitten had caught The Girl's eye, and she had wanted the mom to see her.  If you want to start an argument, ask The Girl and the mom who found Oui Oui.

The mom sometimes wondered about the strange name for Oui Oui.  There was nothing "gold" about her, except maybe her heart.  A couple years later at an adoption fair, the mom ran into the lady who named her.  The litter had been named after jewels.  There had been a Pearl, Opal, Onyx and so on.  Since Oui Oui was the last one left, the theme wasn't apparent.

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The first photo of Mica Minnie Moo.

2 years ago ... The Girl would be leaving for college in August and the mom always joked she would replace The Girl with a Siamese when she moved out.  The mom had been worrying for months about who would play with Oui Oui when The Girl left (she was working long hours and 2 jobs at the time).  

Walking into the pet store to buy food one day, the mom ran into a friend who volunteers at a cat rescue.  Her friend mentioned they had just taken in a Siamese mix, so the mom decided to go see the new kitty.  They didn't know anything about the cat except she was a couple years old, and had been living in the streets.  The county shelter couldn't keep her as she spent the day throwing herself at the bars of the cage and they were worried she would hurt herself.  (This should have been a warning to the mom, but she didn't know then that this was something feral cats did.)  The friend's rescue doesn't keep their cats in cages, and they try matching animals and owners, but didn't have a chance to learn her personality.  The mom figured since she was young, she was as likely to play with Oui Oui as the next cat and so she gotcha'd a pet kitty for Oui Oui to play with.

Other very early pictures of MMM.

She was bony and weighed about 7 lbs (3.17 kg) when we got her.  She ate 3 meals a day plus as much dry food as she wanted.  Now she's a tubby at about 12 lbs (5.44 kg).  Her Siamese markings seem a lot more pronounced back then.  

It was a really rough ride adopting her.  She didn't even know what a back scratch was, she was skittish and aggressive.  We are still working on trust issues.  But she plays with Oui Oui, which is all we ask.  She might not be the kind of cat we wanted, but she's the one we got, so she stays.  When she's relaxed she can be very loving.  It breaks the mom's heart to think of what a really great cat she could have been if she had had a better life before.  There is hope for the future, of course!

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NOW FOR THE FUN STUFF!

GIVEAWAY TIME!

We enjoyed our Creme de la Cat toys so much, 

we were delighted when they were willing to help us celebrate.

What nice people!

And great toys!

We so wanted to do something for all our wonderful blogging friends

to let you know how much you all mean to us.

So just let us know if you are interested in our drawing.

We'll leave it open until midnight Saturday 

to give everyone a chance.  Then we'll use an online 

random selector to pick the winner.

Please, just one entry per blog/ household.

LET THE FUN BEGIN!