Simba

On September 23, 2016, Stephen texted me this picture with this message: “I have a passenger.” I could not believe my eyes. Was that a kitten in his van? Yeap, sure was! He was down in Boca Raton for work. While driving down a four lane busy road, he saw a small object rolling around one of the middle lanes. He literally DROVE OVER IT before realizing it was a kitten! He stopped and went back to go rescue him. He actually had a hard time getting other drivers to stop, and the kitten’s life was in danger many times before he could get to him in the road. He was so tiny & so scared. He finally was able to scoop him up & put him in his van, as pictured. The little guy made the three hour drive home to Orlando & slept almost the entire way.

That 1st weekend, we had this teensy little kitten as our guest. We made him a bed in a small box & gave him an old blanket, as well as one of Liam’s stuffed animals to cuddle. We had no idea how old he was, so we gave him kitten milk. We were sure he was not staying and began asking our friends if they were looking for a new pet.

This little guy quickly warmed up to our little family. A few days went by….we had no takers on him and by then, the boys had named him — SIMBA. I knew it was over at that point. He was not leaving. LOL! Timber was very curious about him, and was not aggressive at all. I think after having Liam come home a few years before this, he was over it. Bahahaha! So, we made an appointment with our vet to get him a well-check & shots. On his 1st visit, he weighed in at only 2 1/2 lbs. Thankfully, besides a little bit of a virus at first, he was very healthy. The rest is history ❤

Simba very quickly took to Timber as a “big brother”. He wants so badly to be close to him and play with him. I think if we had introduced him when Timber was younger, they definitely would have played together. They do kinda ‘play fight’, which is hilarious, but it’s more of Timber saying, ‘hey kid, leave me alone’ 🙂

The vet also estimated Simba to be about 8 or 9 weeks old when Stephen first found him. Thus, we figured that his birthday is sometime at the end of July. We decided to celebrate it on Liam’s birthday & he was tickled by that. He also liked that we told him he was Simba’s other “big brother”. His coloring is really beautiful. A grey tiger striping. He also has these rounded ears that we can’t figure out. The vet says it’s probably a birth defect, but we did find him in the middle of the road in South Florida. Maybe he was cross-bred? LOL!! …The last we checked his weight in May, he was up to almost 12 lbs. — that was for about 10 months old! The vet said he was going to be “a big boy.”

This little tyke has wasted no time getting used to his new digs and making himself quite at home. Like Timber, he is completely spoiled & well-loved. Most of the time, he also acts like he owns the house and us, too.

At Christmas time, he was THAT mischievous kitty who immediately climbed the Christmas tree. I’m talking about within 5 minutes of us putting it in the living room! Completely bare. No decorations. No lights. He kept us on our toes all December, for sure! I can only imagine what fun future seasons are going to hold.

He has an enormous amount of energy, and he is super cute. For Christmas, Santa brought him his own tree-house to play in. It also helps keep his food off the floor so Timber doesn’t eat it. He has been growing like a weed. Very healthy & with a great appetite, but man — you can definitely see him change so much from month to month in his pics!

His playfulness really does make us laugh …..he loves to hide under rugs or behind curtains. I really believe that he thinks that if he can’t see you then you can’t see him either.