Ah Paris!

On Saturday Hannah and I went to a yard sale in our neighborhood. But this was no ordinary yard sale. All of the proceeds from this sale went to help a little girl named Mollie to travel to Boston for much needed medical treatment. While supporting this great cause was near the top of our list of reasons for being there, we did have certain ulterior motives. One of our neighbors, Bonnie by name, had plans to sale her 9 week old kittens and donate the money raised to support Mollie. Of course, Hannah and I are easy targets when it comes to kittens, but add a little charity donation for a really good cause and you can forget about it. How could we say no?

We went to the yard sale late in the afternoon, honestly expecting all four kittens to be swept away to wonderful and loving homes by then. To our delighted surprise, none of the kittens had found homes yet! As with most things, Hannah and I were on the exact same wavelength and knew instantly which one we wanted. We made our donation and took home our cute little man, a grey and white fur ball with medium length hair and heart melting, blue-green eyes.

One of the most exciting parts of getting a pet is the responsibility and joy of naming your new friend. Hannah had Sparky before I knew her, so she would have to tell us about picking that name. Eden was named for the garden (get it… Adam and Eden!), Lily was named before we even got her, we simply lucked out that she was white like an Easter lily, and Aedan got his name from the character of a story I was writing at the time, it means fire! Each one of our pets has had a unique but fitting name. When it came to naming our newest family member, Hannah had but one request. She wanted a boy’s name with some femininity. Since we were in the process of scrapbooking our photos from a recent trip to Europe, the first name that popped into my head was Paris! I blurted it out and we both knew it was perfect. I should take this moment to establish the fact that Paris is named after the City of Light and the character in the Iliad, NOT Paris Hilton.

Apart from dazzling tourists, marrying Helen of Troy and slaying the mighty Achilles, Paris spends his days hiding in the closet on top of a suitcase with my shirts and trousers draped around him for maximum protection. His adorable character has already endeared him to us and we can see that he is becoming increasingly attached to his new parents as well. We are hopeful that his sibling relationships will develop at a normal pace. Lily already thinks she’s his mommy, but he keeps hissing at her when she gets too close. Of course, that doesn’t stop her from trying to give him a bath.