Hello Kitty

Since she was a kid, my wive dreamt of having a pet, preferably a cat. Our kids also said they would love to have a cat or a bunny or a turtle or… I grew up with animals. We had cats and dogs and sheep and goats and chicken and once even a pig. We even had newborn cats and dogs and chicken in our house. Out of all these animals I like dogs best. They are a lot more social and intelligent then any other animal we had. But for our family, even I have to agree, that having a dog would be too big a commitment and responsibility. So after reviewing bunnies, turtles and guinea pigs, we settled for a cat. Mirella surfed the web evening for evening for weeks searching for cats. Then I saw a poster in a cablecar station when doing some tandem flights. Somebody uphill wanted to give away some young cats. They looked cute. So I took a photo of the poster.

After some back and forth and some planning and buying equipment, we went to get one. I quit work early last Friday. After I came home, we drove to Flüelen together, and took the cablecar to Eggberge. The boys were totally excited. We had to walk about half an hour uphill to reach the farm. A boy fetched the cat we had previously selected. They didn’t ask a specific price, but just wanted something to cover their expenses. Our boys could choose a name for the cat. They came up with “Simba”. Simba didn’t like the walk in the box too much, so she started to purr when we stopped at the cablecar. The ride with the cablecar as well as with the car didn’t look too pleasant to her.

But at home she came out of the box, exploring our flat and cuddle. It turned out even though she grew up on a farm she is not shy at all. It’s clear that the kids on the farm spent a lot of time playing with the young kitten. She doesn’t seem to care if our boys drive their RC cars close by her. We try to teach our boys not to carry her around all the time, and watch for the signs if she likes something. Eventhough you can tell if she doesn’t like it sometimes when they play with her, she never hurts them.