Where Do Kittens Come From?

During my junior year of college, my roommate, Justine, and I decided that we wanted to get a pet. We thought maybe a frog would be a good idea, but it turned out to be a disaster. So, we thought maybe we could handle a cat-they're fairly low maintenance, not as much work as a dog, and it would be something to cuddle and play with.

We asked around and eventually we found a friend who had a stray kitten roaming around her yard. She said that someone dropped a few kittens off at the end of her road and that she was hoping to find good homes for them. So, we made arrangements and decided to take a road trip back to my hometown in Southern York County, Pennsylvania to pick up our newest roommate.

Well, that morning our friend called us to say she could not find the kitten anywhere. She had walked all over her property and then some, relentlessly calling for this cat. As this was very out of character for the kitten, no one could figure out where the stinking thing had gone. We called off the plans and my parents agreed to bring the cat to us the following week.

So, Justine and I went out and bought food, litter, toys, treats, and anything we could possibly need for a 7-month-old kitten. Then, much to our excitement, Riley finally arrived. We were ecstatic to welcome this sweet and strangely well-behaved calico to our home. She adjusted well, and she was like one of us four-well, five I guess-in no time.

Suddenly, her behavior began to take a turn for the worse. It seemed as though she went from being the most ideal pet to one that we could hardly tolerate. She began to eat almost constantly, get onto furniture she knew she wasn't supposed to be on, and no matter how many times we tried to correct her with the squirt bottle, she simply would not listen. We then noticed that Riley was gaining weight. Little by little, she seemed to balloon.

As we were preoccupied with our final exams, no one in the house seemed to think much of it. We just related her weight gain to the fact that she had gone from being an active, outside kitten to a lazy, domesticated house cat.

One morning while I was still asleep (and trying to recover from an eventful Friday night), Riley was clawing and clawing at my bedroom door. Since this was rather unlike her, I opened the door and brought her to rest with me. For whatever reason, I opened up my eyes and saw that there was some sort of wetness right under her. Naturally, I thought she had gone to the bathroom, so I shooed her away and went to put my sheets in the washing machine.

For the next half hour, she followed me everywhere I went as I attempted to tidy up the downstairs. As Justine came downstairs to get ready for work, I filled her in on Riley's erratic behavior. Just then she noticed a drop of what appeared to be blood on Riley's tail. Immediately, I thought perhaps the cat was suffering from kidney problems. So while Justine was getting ready for work, I put a blanket down on the floor in our living room so that Riley could rest comfortably until I could make arrangements to get her taken care of.

Our other roommate, Taryn, who is not an animal lover by any means, came downstairs. She immediately rushed for the bottle of Advil and a large glass of water. After she had attended to her own needs, she came to see what was wrong with Riley. Suddenly, the blanket became spattered with blood and Riley began to meow extremely loudly. I jumped up to assure Riley that everything would be ok while Taryn covered her eyes and gasped, "I think I'm going to throw up!"

Since Justine is a health sciences student, I figured that she would be the roommate most suited to check out our kitten. All of a sudden it looked as though something solid was coming out of Riley, and I screamed for Justine to come. I told her, "A little ball just came out of Riley! I don't know if it's a kidney or what!"

As Justine bent down to see what was wrong, we heard a high-pitched, muffled meow, and Justine said "Oh my God! It's an animal!"

Without even thinking, I asked, "A real animal?" and Taryn erupted "Oh no! Did Riley eat Hallie's hamster?"

Justine and I couldn't help but laugh, and I said "Yeah, she actually ate the hamster and it came out whole!"

We finally settled down and came to our senses. The three of us had no idea how this thing worked, but luckily Riley did. She took care of everything and all the three of us had to do was sit around and wait to get a final head out. In the end, we had two ornery boys and a sweet little girl.

After much debate, we finally decided on names: Gilligan, with Gillie as a nickname, Ovi, after Alexander Ovechkin, our favorite hockey player, and Alan, after Zach Galifianakis' character in the movie The Hangover.

Every time we tell the story, we are still baffled by our ignorance. How could we be so oblivious? How did we neglect to put two and two together? Either way, it was quite an adventure and it was an experience we will never forget. Plus, the mystery was finally solved as to where Riley had gone one the day she was nowhere to be found.

If only we would have listened to Bob Barker! If we had taken her to be spayed, we would have been forewarned about the predicament that our precious pet had gotten us into!