Tora

I know many of you may know that I lost my dog of over 14yrs died in September of last year. She was old and I put her down. I don't regret anything. That weekend we went to Petco and saw some really cute kittens. Chris and I talked it over and I needed another animal in my life. We got the okay from Linda and the weekend after that we went and found Tora. She was originally being called Fiona by her foster mom, but that didn't seem to suit her. I played around w/ Fifi, Lulu, and a few others, but Tora is what seemed best. Tora is Japanese for "tiger".
It helped getting over Sugar. Sugar had slept in my room w/ me since she was about a year old. I cried almost every night that week I didn't have an animal there w/ me. I needed that small cuddle bug that would sleep close to me.
The first night we had Tora was a NIGHTMARE. She ate some food the vet gave her, bc that's where I was gonna pick her up (and where the foster dropped her off), and then I gave her new food mixed in w/ old food. That's 3 different diets in one day. Her stomach was soo super upset. She was pooping so much. She wasn't making it to her litter box in time. I went through 3 shirts that night bc she pooped on me. We took her straight to the vet the next morning and get her on some medicine and she was de-wormed. I want to say she was de-wormed 2 or 3 times before it all finally went away.
She was super tiny when I first brought her home too. She basically walked under my dresser. She's gotten much bigger now and I haven't seen her go under my dresser in awhile, unless she REALLY wants a toy or something that's under there.
Tora is very different from Sugar (please note I never tried to replace Sugar, bc that would be impossible, and not right). For one, Sugar was a dog, and Tora is a kitten. Secondly, Sugar was dependent and content anywhere. I could put Sugar next to me, and she would stay there and sleep until I decided she needed to move. Tora, not so much. She is very independent and doesn't always want to cuddle or sit in my lap. Sometimes she will fall asleep across the room from me. It was hard to accept that an animal didn't want to fall asleep on me, but it's coming. Tora is a very independent kitten, and she's only about 7mos old.
She has such a personality. She was born from a feral cat and the foster trapped her and a the rest of her litter. I adopted her when she had just turned 6 weeks. I read Kittens For Dummies and it said to get a kitten at 3mos so that they can be over worms and other stuff, but I wanted a tiny kitten, and you don't get much tinier than 6 weeks. I went through a lot w/ Tora, and we still have more that we're gonna be put through I am sure. She went to the vet a month or so ago bc one of the older cats scratched her 3rd eyelid and cut across it, and barely missed her cornea. She is super lucky, bc it could've been so much worse.
She is best friends w/ Chris's dog Jack. She hated him originally and spat and hissed and swiped at him. She had never seen a dog before and had no idea what to think, but w/in a month or so, they became best friends, and now they play all of the time.
Tora still has a few more months to grow and then she will get to her full growth potential. I hate how much she's already grown. She is starting to finally shed now, but it isn't much. I remember hoping that she wouldn't shed at all, bc it took so long for her to finally begin shedding. She used to be so tiny, and her meow was so much higher pitched. We will take her w/ us where ever we may go. She sleeps w/ me every single night. She falls asleep on my chest then usually moves down right to the middle of the bed to where I can't move my legs. She meows to get out of my room every morning if there is any trace that someone is waking up. She can really get on my nerves sometimes, but I wouldn't ask for a cuter cat. I can get so mad at her, but it takes one look from her and I'm not mad anymore. She just has to come and rub on me and purr and all is forgiven.
We have spoiled her rotten w/ toys and scratchers. I plan on spoiling her more though. Chris got her for me, for us to have. He loves her so much as well. He never really took to Sugar, bc he thought that she was kinda dumb. She wasn't totally done, she was just kinda useless haha. She made me happy though. When I find myself thinking about Sugar a lot I will tear up. She was my first animal that I had that a very deep connection w/. I loved her so much, and I hope that I showed her that and she knew it. I now hope Tora knows how much I love her. I can't wait to see where she ends up in 10yrs or so :)