On the other end of the line was a woman who had requested a house blessing the month before. Anna and I had both attended the blessing, and while I was asking God to bless her house Anna spent time playing with her adorable new kitten, Magda. Now this woman was calling because she had neglected to check with her landlord prior to acquiring a cat, and the landlord told her the cat had to go. She had already exhausted her friends, so she called the friendly neighborhood pastor whose wife had already had a fun time with the cat.
As I have already mentioned, it is December, and the cold winter had already settled in promising a long, cold winter. I knew that if we didn't act this cat didn't have a chance at survival, because most unwanted animals in our area simply get left on the roadside to fend for themselves. This young kitten would never have lasted the night! So I took one look at Anna and decided we would drive the 22 miles to Belcourt to pick up this kitten, whom the woman had named Magda.
One thing I knew for sure as we drove home is that the kitten would NOT be called Magda! First of all, I wasn't convinced it was a female. Second of all, I don't think the name Magda fits a cat. You have to have a name that sounds good when you yell it. We settled on the name Charley. There are a number of ways to spell that name, but our cat is named Charley.
Notice that when you yell CHARLEY!!! You can really hang on to the E sound at the end. Boy, does it work well! Especially considering that since Charley is a kitten, we yell at him a lot! Yes, I said, 'him'. It turns out that when we took Charley to the vet, she confirmed that our cat is a male. Now we have two male cats, Jasper and Charley, and sometimes they actually get along! But most times you can hear us hollering "CHARLEEEEYYY" See why we had to have a name like that? Ah, what a fun little cat he is!
