MY HORRIBLE WEEK AT PETSMART, by Jacen

I have just spent an entire week plus one day at PetSmart, trying to get adopted, and I can tell you it was NO FUN!  But finally, Mom came and liberated me yesterday afternoon and brought me back home where I belong.  Of course, it was Mom who took me there in the first place and abandoned me, so I've had eight whole days to be mad at her.  But now that I'm home again, I think I might be starting to forgive her.

At PetSmart, there are a whole bunch of cats and kittens, and all of us were in little cages in a room behind a glass wall.  The cages just have a litter box, a food dish, a bowl of water, and a box sort of thing that you can sleep in.  Actually, it's more like shelves than a box.  Or maybe you could say it's kind of a bunk bed for kitties.

Anyway, most of the kittens who were there were about my age.  Aunt Tania calls us "teenagers."  In one big, double cage, there were four teenage kittens together, so they could keep each other company.  But I was in a cage all alone, and I didn't have anyone to play with or snuggle with.  Mom said she tried not to think about me being there, feeling all abandoned and lonely, but she thought about me anyhow.  I'm not sure I believe her, because if she was really thinking about me, she would have come and rescued me much sooner.

The people who work at PetSmart were nice to us, and they fed us and cleaned out our litter boxes every day.  Then while the store was open, people would come in and look at us cats, and a lot of times, little kids would put sticks with feathers on them through the cage doors.  We were supposed to play with the feathers, but I didn't always feel like doing that because having strange people around makes me nervous.  And also, I can't just play or perform on command, like some silly dog would do.

Aunt Tania came sometimes to visit us and check on us and clean out our cages, and she would play with me while she was there.  But really all I wanted was to go back home again.  Which is why I was so happy to see Mom when she came to get me yesterday.

Back at home, I found everything pretty much like it was when I left, except that the three little kittens were bigger, and now they go upstairs and all sorts of new places.  Also Chloe and Charlie hissed at me some.  They probably thought they got rid of me, but here I was, back again!  The dogs sniffed me over pretty good, but they didn't seem to mind that I was there.  That tall dog, Nicky, has funny bandage things on his legs.  I'm not sure what's up with that.

I spent the evening reacquainting myself with the house and playing with the little kittens.  Mom bought them a new tunnel toy while I was gone, and it's a lot of fun to play in.  Finally, I just curled up on Mom's lap and purred while she did her email, and then I slept in her bed all night.  This is the way life should be, I think.

Mom says I will have to go back to PetSmart in a couple of weeks to stay there again for a while, and this time I might get a kitten buddy in my cage with me so I won't be so lonely.  But I don't want to go back there.  I just want to stay here.  Mom says she has too many animals already, and she shouldn't adopt me, even though she would like to.  But maybe if I really turn on the charm, I can make her change her mind!