Before Blake and I moved in together, we would do everything we could to visit as often as possible. It would only work out to being once or twice a year, but when we were together, we would make every second count. About a year before the move, i had come down for a visit and Blake had just started his college classes. Since the classes weren’t that long, I would come along and wait in the lobby or cafeteria. One day, as we were walking on campus, we saw one of our friends staring a a bush. We figured she saw something so we went up and asked what was going on. She told us to be quite, and we hear the cutest little meow ever coming from the bush. There was a kitten in there. So we all got down to get it out and saw that it was stuck in a thorn bush. More people gathered to see what these tree people were doing at a thorn bush as the three of us worked on moving branches out of the way to save the kitten. It started to hiss in fear but we finally got it out. I don’t know how I knew, but I just had a really strong feeling that this kitten was going to be orange. This scared, fluffy cheeto, puff ball was saved from a college campus thorn bush and drew so much attention that I knew it would be safer with someone who would really take care of it. Our friend said that she would have loved to take it home, but her parents wouldn’t be up for another. Blake and I looked at each other and figured I could hold on to it until he got out of class and then discuss it more. While he was in class, I was being approached by many people that wanted to see the kitten. I could tell that it was getting really stressed out and scared, so I took it back to the car. Once Blake’s class was over, I felt concerned about the kitten’s health and if it was hungry or thirsty. So I talked him in to going to Petco and getting a little food and litter for it until we figured out where it would end up.
We get to Petco and explain what all happened and asked for advice as to what we should feed it. They estimated the age of being a few weeks old and showed us some formula options to start with. The kitten was so scared and stressed that it pooped on the floor! It was good timing though because the employee helping us saw that the kitten had been eating crickets. So they showed us some kitten food as well. We got what we needed and headed to Blake’s grandparents house. On the drive there, we discussed how we would break the news to his grandparents. Blake decided to have me stay by the car and tell them not to get mad, but that we saved a baby kitten and want to keep it as our own. This was one of my favorite moments because the kitten would keep hiding in my jacket sleeve. It was so adorable I didn’t want it to end! His grandparents weren’t entirely thrilled but they were fine with the idea.
The next day while Blake was in class, I took the kitten back to Petco and asked them if they could tell if it was a girl or a boy. They said it’s really hard to tell with cats when they are so young, but that it looked like a girl to them. So I went back to the cat section, picked out a gray collar with a pink bow, a little pink bed, some cat nip and a little cat carrier. When I got to the car, I put the collar on her, the bed in the carrier and let it lay down and get comfortable. After Blake’s class we picked him up and she fell asleep in the carrier on the way home with the biggest smile! I had to get a picture of that! That night we decided to name her Autumn for her color and it being close to the fall when we found her. We were going to name her Sphinx, but Blake’s grandmother couldn’t pronounce the name and Autumn had more meaning behind it anyway. When it came time for me to go back to Michigan, not only was my heart broken saying goodbye to Blake, but also to a new fur baby. She even knew something was up when I said my goodbyes. She kept pawing at the carrier door and meowing. It was definitely heart breaking, but I had taken a lot of photos and videos of the time we did share to take along with me.
Months later Blake had sent me a picture with the caption “I don’t think Autumn is a girl.” The photo proved that Autumn was not a girl at all, so we had to go back to the name board and get it switched. We are both disney fans and the color was close. We also wanted to make it even more unique by spelling it a bit different too, so that’s when we decided on the name Symbah.
Symbah is almost two years old now. He loves relaxing in the sun on the cat tree and taking baths. Symbah also enjoys what we call tummy time every now and then. In the images below you will see the day we saved him, the ride home in the carrier, and cuddling under the blanket during a thunderstorm a year later.
Do you have any heroic cat stories? What did you name them? Leave a comment below to share your story! :)
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