Milo - Writing Challenge, Day 16

Milo hasn’t been officially introduced on the blog yet!

Here’s his story.

Darryl and I went to his mom’s on June 10th and went to his uncle’s next door.  While outside, I saw this tiny little black and white kitten who looked completely terrified and lost. He was in the corner between the porch and trailer and was literally trying to climb through a wall to get under the porch. 

I went over and picked him up. He immediately snuggled against me. Anytime anyone tried to come near me or reach for him, he huddled into me and tried to hide from them.  

When it was time to head back down to Darryl’s mom’s, we started looking around for the kitten’s litter to put him back with. Pretty quickly, we figured out that he didn’t belong with any of the litters there. None of the them were the same size or age, and Darryl’s mom was familiar with the litters there and knew he didn’t belong. We looked all over to see if there were any new kittens, but there weren’t. The couple of other female cats who lived around there that had been pregnant hadn’t had their kittens yet. So, we deduced that he must have been abandoned - either by a person dropping him off or by his real mom, wherever she was.  I didn’t know what to do. I asked Darryl if maybe I should just put him back where I’d found him, just in case.

Darryl said, “You do realize, if you put him back, he’s going to die, right? He’s too young to survive on his own. He won’t be here the next time we come over.”

I replied with, “Well, what do I do?? We can’t take him home. We already basically have a zoo. We don’t need a new kitten right now.”

Darryl said, “Just think about it.” And he walked away, back to his mom’s.

I stood there undecided...for about 15 seconds. I couldn’t figure out if I should put him back or hold onto him and follow Darryl. I ended up taking him down to the house and held him on my lap in the living room. Darryl and his mom kept talking about how the kitten had imprinted on me. He acted like he thought I was his mom and clung to me, and he was scared to death of everyone else.

Eventually I started looking up orphaned kitten care on my phone and deduced that he was going to need formula to start with. Followed pretty soon by that mixed with canned kitten food, and eventually would graduate to regular kitten food. There were also some pretty gross things about helping them go to the bathroom. Thankfully that only lasted a day or two before he started going on his own!

So, it was decided. We were taking him home. We had to stop at Walmart so I could run in and get the stuff he needed while Darryl waited with him in the truck. On the way home, I decided to name him Milo.

Ever seen the movie Milo and Otis? I grew up watching that as a kid. Bo looks exactly like that Milo, and that’s what I wanted to name him when we rescued him. But he was meant to be Darryl’s cat, and Darryl liked the name Bojangles. So, Bo is Bojangles Beauregard (since he’s called BoBo half the time). I still wanted a cat named Milo. So that’s who the kitten became.

And y’all...

If you’ve seen the movie, you know how much of a troublemaker the cinematic Milo is. My Milo totally lives up to the reputation associated with the name.  He was 4 weeks old when we found him.  He didn't really get introduced to the other cats for a couple weeks, not until he'd had his first vaccines.  But as soon as he got over his fear of the other animals...

He terrorizes the other cats. He’s best friends with the dog (just like Bo).  He gets into everything. He’s always places he shouldn’t be. I came home yesterday at lunch and found everything from the coffee table on the floor...the other cats know better. Milo, however, has had the time of his life jumping from furniture to furniture and taking flying leaps off of things lately, skidding off things as he goes by.

He’s a mighty fly/gnat hunter.  He naps with the dog. He has no fear. 

No one messes with Bo’s tail...but Milo does... No fear. 

Chase two cats three times his size across the house as they hiss and spit and yowl at him? No problem. 

Shove a full grown cat out of their food bowl so he can eat it instead? Why not?

When you correct him, he gleefully bounces back into doing what he was already doing and makes you correct him ten thousand more times.  Raising your voice doesn't typically phase him at all.  And lord help you if he's super focused on something.  Like stalking one of his brothers.  He will be so intensely focused that your voice will not exist to him.

He’s definitely showing signs of being an alpha cat. And so is Bo, which should be pretty interesting...

If you follow me on social media, you've already seen about a hundred photos (and that might not be a full exaggeration), so I kept it limited on here, but check out my Instagram for lots more!