Wait, what's her name? Or, Haruka's adoption story.

It's been almost a month since Haruka came home with us. I had been wanting to get a cat for so long; kind of a gift to us for dealing with the wonderful task of searching for our home (our realtor Karen is awesome) . . . . We hadn't even finished moving stuff out of our old place yet, but we couldn't wait. On March 20th, the first day of spring, we drove to the Orange County Animal Shelter to search for our first cat.

We had originally wanted to get a boy cat, since in a couple of months we'll be adopting our friend's female kitty when she moves back home (not to mate or anything, just to have some sort of balance, I guess). However, the second we walked into the room with the available cats, this loud, obnoxious chirper caught our attention. This little cat in the lower left-hand cage was all about seeking attention! She pawed at our fingers and rolled around. The other cats had varying degrees of outgoingness . . . some were chirpy, some were sleeping, and a couple of them were grumpy-pants. We gave it some careful thought, and walked back towards the chirpster just as a couple had stopped to look at her. I felt a twinge of jealousy . . . . but it subsided once they left. We asked the assistant in the room to take her out and let us hold her--she was REALLY GOOD about being held! A lot of cats start squirming instantly, but not this one . . . We knew she was 'the one,' so we let the girl know and went about filling out the paperwork. Within 20 minutes, we were walking out the door to the car with our new kitty.

The car ride was mostly uneventful . . . she mewed a little bit, but was mostly silent and wide-eyed. Traffic was crappy as we were on the highway; lots of stop-and-go. Luckily she wasn't bothered too much . . . . or was she?

When we got her home, and took her out of the kitty carrier . . . . I noticed something.

Something wet.

Something . . . . very . . . . piddle-like.

The poor cat had actually gotten so nervous that she had soiled herself . . . . and continued to soil herself, and ME, and our bathroom WALL, as I took her out of the carrier.

   

And thus, Haruka got her first bath. (She was pretty okay with that, too.)

That night we left the door to our bedroom open so she could explore and get acquainted with things in the house. This mostly meant she came into our room every hour on the hour, hopped on the bed, licked our faces, and hopped off. Like many new parents, we got very little sleep.

I still haven't explained her name yet, though. Haruka is a Japanese word that can mean 'far away' or 'distant.' In this instance, however, it's written with the kanji for 'spring' and 'scent', so her name actually means the scent of spring. Quite fitting because we got her on the first day of spring, and ironically so because she piddled on herself.

It took a little while to figure out her name. When we were stuck in traffic, the song 'Haruka' by the band PIERROT came on, and it's my favorite song by them. Haruka also happens to be the name of the band in my web comic, Cardboard Angel, and the name of a character in my favorite comic, Maison Ikkoku. All of this combined is her namesake. All of this combined means that I'm beyond help when it comes to being geeky.

Her nicknames range from cute to spastic, like Harukat (hence the name of the blog--nope, it's not a typo!), and Kitty-Butt (among others). She comes to those names about 50% of the time. The other 50% you need to be opening a door to a room she's not allowed into, or the refrigerator.

Haruka has adjusted pretty well to life with us. She's gotten used to our schedule (and sometimes adheres to it) and has never made any messes since the day we brought her home. She's still very chirpy and purrs like a motorboat, and is currently on top of the loft in my office, sleeping now so she can wake us up later tonight.