He Is Siamese If You Please...

We've been kicking around the idea of adopting another kitty for several weeks now, since Athennia [only half-jokingly] lamented not having a cat of her own, the way that Kevin has Persephone Jade and Riley has Lucky Charm.

So...

We brought home a new member of our family today!

His name is Odin Sigfrid—after Odin, the (ahem... one-eyed) Norse god of healing, death, battle, and victory [among many other things]; and the mythological hero Siegfried, whose name connotes triumph and peace.

It is not by happenstance that we chose this name: Despite not even being half a year old yet, little Odin has had an unimaginably rough life so far.

He was in really bad shape when the adoption agency's team managed to rescue him from a colony they've been dealing with for years.

His right eye was already infected when they found him...

And it didn't exactly get better with time...

He eventually required surgery to remove the eye entirely; and in the meantime, he also had a double hernia that required extensive surgery on its own!

As if all of this weren't enough, there were also complications after he was neutered—when one of his stitches failed to dissolve with the others, and he picked at it and inadvertently pulled out his vas deferens...

So, he's been dealt a pretty crappy hand so far in life... but he has persevered through all of his injuries so far!

Hence, Odin Sigfrid—to victory and peace.

Nearly a week ago, we browsed the adoption listings at Cat Tales, since Kevin had a great experience when he adopted Penny from them back in 2019.

We came across several potential candidates—one of whom was a sweet-looking, one-eyed Siamese kitten named "Otis":

Kevin reached out for some more information—specifically to inquire about what special needs Otis might have (since his listing didn't include any detail about how he lost his eye)...

He exchanged a few emails with a woman named Carrie—explaining that, while we're obviously no strangers to the expenses of caring for... typical cats, we're also planning to take on a mortgage in the near future and won't have an infinite budget for a special needs cat that requires steep monthly costs in medication or other provisions.

Carrie filled us in on Otis's back story and assured us that, despite his rocky road through life so far, he's absolutely fine now and as super-sweet as can be!

She set up a meet-and-greet for us (and Riley) with Otis's foster mom Wanda yesterday; and over the hour we spent talking with her and hanging out with Otis at the adoption center, Kevin realized that Wanda had also been Penny's foster mom four years back!

The visit went great, and Wanda said she was 99% sure Kevin was already pre-approved to adopt since he'd adopted from Cat Tales in the past; so, we sent another email to Carrie to ask what the next step was... and, sure enough, she told us to let her know a day and time when we wanted to come pick Otis up!

And so, we brought him home this evening...

And dubbed him Odin Sigfrid...

And started him off in the bathroom so as not to overwhelm him, but quickly moved him into our bedroom when we saw how fearless and eager to explore he was!

He scoured every inch of our bedroom until he was finally so tired that he practically fell asleep in his water bowl:

Much more to come soon :)