Kona
Finding Kona
On Wednesday, September 12th, 2001, the day after we decided to adopt Maddie, we thought we'd make one last effort to see if someone was missing Maddie. Bil remembered that he knew someone who lived near where the boys had told us they thought Maddie may have belonged. So Bil emailed her and told her about Maddie.
She wasn't sure if she knew Maddie or not but another neighbor had "rescued" a black kitty from a home where she noticed she was being mistreated. The cat had not been spayed and was pregnant. So this neighbor took the cat in to let her have her kittens and then paid to have the mama cat spayed. The cat had five kittens on June 7th and four of them had already been adopted. They just needed to find a home for the last one: an all-black kitty.
We thought "in for a penny, in for a pound" and maybe they could keep each other company while we were at work during the day. Besides, it would be fun to have two black, twin kitties. We decided to adopt this last kitten. He was just over 12 weeks old.
After work, we walked up to the house to meet the little kitten. And it was, of course, love at first sight. He was a ball of energy. We bundled him in our arms and walked him home. Now, we didn't know any better about introducing cats to each other, so we just opened the door and set him loose in the house. We didn't think that Maddie could have claimed the house after only 24 hours. But we were so wrong: Maddie hated him. She hissed and growled and ran away. The kitten took it in stride and simply explored the house as if he owned it.
In keeping with our Ironman Triathlon theme in naming Maddie, Bil thought we could name the kitten Kona, after Kona, Hawaii where the Ironman triathlon was born and where the championship was still held every year. I guess, too, that Kona Hawaii has a lot of black lava and our kitten was all black, so, Kona it is.
I'd forgotten how much work kittens require and Kona had a ton of energy. He wanted to play ALL THE TIME. Maddie not only didn't know how to play, she certainly didn't want to play with him. I was afraid we'd made a terrible mistake and wondered if we should give Kona back. But Bil talked me into giving them some more time and sure enough, after about 10 days, I noticed Maddie behaving better around him. They were obviously starting to play together--chasing and even tousling, and it seemed they took turns as to who was on the defense and who was on the offense; who was on top and who was on bottom; who was the chaser and who the chasee. Maddie even started grooming him. It was wonderful.
At 5 months of age, we took Kona in to have him neutered. It was a quick procedure but he was a pretty groggy uncomfortable kitty that evening. I watched him laying by the fireplace, moving his top back leg around trying to find a comfortable position. I felt so bad for him! But by the next morning, he was already better and almost up to his pre-operation speed.
Kona's Temperament
I know Kona had a safe kitten-hood, but I don't think the neighbor folks spent enough time holding and handling him when he was really little. Although better than Maddie at being held, he still never became a lap cat and I think that's because he, too, didn't get the full socialization that kittens need.
Where Maddie chose Bil, Kona chose me. He tolerates Bil, and he's very scared of strangers, but he bonded with me. From almost the time we brought him home, when I would go to bed, he would come lay down on me with part of his body laying across my shoulder, chest, or throat (gack!). He is my boy.
We're very glad he came into our lives and I can't believe I once thought we should give him back.