Charley gets a little sister…for 4 days.

Last week was a little crazy for me…

I had the bright idea of adopting a kitten last weekend, 

and we were able to bring her home Tuesday evening!

Since we have a dog they let us have a “week long sleepover” 

in order to see if Charley and the kitten would actually get along.

I brought her home Tuesday evening and was SO excited,

she is honestly precious and the sweetest little kitten you’ll ever meet.

I decided to name her Chloe.

I brought her home and let her get used to the house first.

Then we decided to introduce her and Charley,

I wrapped her up in a blanket and Kyle brought Charley over so she could smell 

her [hopefully] new little sister.

Chloe was terrified and was a hissing machine [of course]

The first night we kept them separated, we set up a baby gate in the laundry room.

This way they could see each other but not get each other.

Charley was SO curious and wanted to play with her SO bad.

I was having really high hopes until…

 I started sneezing non stop,

my eyes got swollen, puffy and crazy itchy..

and my nose would not stop running.

I grew up with cats y’all!!

How on earth am I allergic?!

I do remember after coming home from college my allergies would start to act up.

But never THIS bad, I was miserable.

So the next morning I decided I couldn’t handle it.

I literally couldn’t see out of my left eye, couldn’t breathe, and had a major migraine.

Oh, and to top that off Charley would not stop barking at the top of her lungs at the cat.

So I emailed the adoption place and apologized and told them about my reaction.

They said a lot of people at the shelter are allergic and take claritin and it helps a lot,

so I figured I might as well give that a try, 

because it honestly broke my heart thinking about having to take her back.

I made it through the first day, barely.

The 2nd day I took Claritin first thing in the morning, it made such a huge difference!

Although I wasn’t feeling 100% it was SO much better, Charley did’t bark at her as much that day,

and I was finally starting to feel like she was part of the family!

The 2nd day was awesome, I was able to hold her and be with her without being miserable.

I was able to work with her and Charley a lot and they made a tiny bit of progress,

but I was still worried because Charley was being kind of rough with her and scaring her.

But I was feeling pretty happy & confident that we were going to be able to keep her.

So in honor of a new month, I decided we should take an updated family photo!

After about 100 attempts we finally captured a good one!

Y’all the 2nd day was perfect.

Then came the 3rd day….

I took claritin but for some reason it wasn’t working as well…

the sneezing and itchiness would NOT go away.

The kitten (Chloe) and Charley were not getting along at all.

Whenever she would be out of her room Charley would get crazy excited

and paw at her or lunge at her (as if she was another puppy) and the cat

did NOT like that at all…

By the 4th day I just couldn’t handle it…
Charley would not stop barking at Chloe,
and Chloe didnt want anything to do with Charley because she was terrified.
And I had a pounding headache and sneeze attacks regularly.

I had to make the tough decision to take her back,
It was hard y’all…I was way more attached than I thought.
I definitely cried, and definitely made Kyle take her back because there’s no way I could’ve done it.
Thank God for husbands.

At the end of the day I’m really glad we at least tried…
I’m thinking maybe one day when Charley’s older and a lot more calm we can maybe get a kitten.
I’m still shocked at how allergic I am though…

It looks like we may just have to be puppy people!

Sorry for the long drawn out story…
I know that’s not much of an excuse for not blogging AT ALL last week,
but hey it’s kind of an excuse!

Happy Monday and Happy NOVEMBER!
<3 <3