Look what came for Christmas!

I was with my family in NC for Christmas. A couple of days before I headed south, my Mom called to say she was doing something she hadn't done in just under 8 years;

"I'm scraping frost off my car!" It was kind of funny that she was so excited about it. Then she said that before she left the house she checked the thermometer outside to see what the temp was and there was this little black kitten sitting on their back doorstep. She said it was very cute and looked very clean. We decided that she had to have been dropped off by someone who didn't want her if she was on the back step looking to get inside. Mom didn't let her in since they were watching my brother's dog.

Over the next couple of days Mom and Dad didn't see the cat so the hoped someone had adopted it. I drove to NC the Thursday before Christmas and when I arrived my family and my brother's dog came out of the house to greet me. As we were standing in the driveway hugging and greeting, the little black kitten trotted out of the bushes like "Hi! I'm here too!" Dad shooed it away.
The next morning I was determined to rescue the kitten and get it to a no-kill shelter. Mom and I called every place and person we could think of and every place we were referred to from vets offices, animal hospitals and even my brother's chiropractor. Mom even had her Mah Jongg group looking for someone to take the kitten. We tried places within a 40 mile radius of their house and there was literally "No room at the inns".

So I took matters into my own hands. I called a local vet and we borrowed a cat carrier and we took her over there to get checked out. I had in the back of my mind that as a last resort I'd adopt her. As we waited for my brother to arrive with the carrier, the little kitty was winding herself around my Mom's legs and Mom said to her "Aren't you just a little Noel." Mom named her without even realizing it.

The vet looked at her and told us she was very clean (no fleas, ticks or ear mites), her tests for feline leukemia and feline aids came back negative. So she got booster shots for all diseases and I boarded her for 4 nights (they threw in a night for free since I rescued her).

On the way home (12 hours in a car!), Noel was the perfect traveler. Once I moved her new carrier so she could look at me easily, she quieted down and slept most of the way. Then I noticed her sneezing and coughing a little, and once she sneezed so much - well - it was obvious she was congested.
When we got home I put Noel into a room of her own and gave Katie lots of love and hugs and kisses. Katie was a little wary of Noel, but since she was in a closed room, Katie couldn't care less about her.

Saturday was the soonest I could get Noel to my vet and she has a cold. She's been on antibiotics since then and now that she's better, she's out and about with me and Katie. Katie isn't all too pleased about the new addition, but other than growling and hissing there haven't been any Smackdown vs Raw matches.

Oh and the other thing - the vet shaved her abdomen to see if she had been spayed, and she has been. Now seriously - who spends all that money on a cat and then dumps it???

So now we're a house full of chicks. Two Jersey Girls and a Southern Belle.