Last December, Monkey got her first real (aka on-the-record, and taxable) job with the PetSmart over by Chinook. It’s out-of-the-way from our house and from the University, which is really its single biggest issue (other than the regular crackheads who try to smoke up in the bathroom, or the people who try to fake-return things to get money). Otherwise, she’s got good coworkers and likes the job.
Like most pet stores, PetSmart does not sell larger animals, like cats and dogs, anymore. They do, however, feature cats from the Alberta Animal Rescue Crew Society (AARCS). Some cats go through the store fairly quickly, some sadly linger a while. Monkey, as a staff members, periodically steals into the kennels to say “hi”. We’ve heard about many cats going through the store.
But she became particularly smitten with one kitten, and decided – as a fully-fledged adult with income – she needed to adopt it. The obvious cat-veat (ha!) that she needed Alex’s and my blessing, since Monkey still lives at home. Which means we would have three cats in the house.
I’ll spare you that part of the story, only because it’s uninteresting, and tell you we now have three cats in the house.
All of our cats are (now) named after fictional doctors. Our eldest, and first on this roster, is named for Dr. Jack Hodgins, from the TV show Bones, Choo Choo’s selection. The second, our first kitten, was Dr. Bruce Banner, aka The Incredible Hulk (and honestly, Banner sometimes lives up to the name).
Monkey’s kitten is named after Dr. Ryland Grace from Hail Mary Project, which was a movie she has obsessed over since it came out. Yes, in the movie, Grace is male; Grace – or more likely, Gracie, to keep the syllabic parallel with her older brothers – works very well as a female kitty’s name, too.
Monkey paid the fee last weekend. However, we couldn’t bring her home yet, as we need to second her in a room for a couple of weeks until she’s settled and the boys get a chance to meet her (through a baby gate). We’re not really concerned with them taking her in, though: Hodgins has had to deal with Banner, who’s roughly his size, for some time. And Banner seems pretty chill, when he’s not hulking out and trying to smash Hodgins (spoiler alert: Hodgins usually wins).
The running joke is that we’ll have a fourth cat before long.
Personally, I’d rather have a dog.