WHAT HAPPENS WHEN SOCKING AND TWEETIE FINALLY MEET?!!

Tweetie was a marvelous passenger. Although he seemed a bit limp and sad, perhaps it was his reaction to the stress of highway sounds? Maybe it was just being a kitten and needing a nap? He settled down quickly. I offered him some toys to play with, but he wasn't interested. I didn't push it with him, instead just offered to pet him, which he seemed to give him some comfort. I could feel him purring through my fingers.

Within a short time, Tweetie was fast asleep on my hand. I didn't move it, figuring I have a spare hand, so if this one falls off due to inadequate blood flow, then heck, I'm mostly right handed, so no big deal. Somehow I managed to send out a few Tweets and the above two photos to everyone to let them know we were making progress and would be reaching Socks Army HQ soon. We didn't hit much traffic and the threatening looking weather moved on, only releasing a modest shower, instead of a torrent. We pulled into the driveway of...hey! I'm NOT telling you the TOP SECRET LOCATION OF SOCKS ARMY HQ! Are you kidding me?! I had to sign a blood oath never to divulge this secret!...

...and low and behold, who should walk out to welcome us, but Food Lady, herself! (no photos, please!)

As I got out of the car, I got slapped by hot, humid air. It was nasty! Socks Army HQ has so many different operations that only certain sectors of the HQ are chilled. When we entered HQ and were escorted to Tweetie's new temporary quarters, I realized Tweetie was going to be very warm, indeed. I started to worry. His quarters were small and sequestered from the lavish surroundings that Socks and Penny enjoy. I kept reminding myself that this was "just for a few days" and that the weather was going to break that night (which it did, thankfully and things cooled down and dried out nicely). Food Lady had everything ready. We released Tweetie and instead of hiding or hissing, he casually walked around and was a proper gentleman and showed Food Lady he knew how to use his new litter pan!

With fresh food and water laid out before him, we decided to let him rest a bit while we sought refuge in the cool chambers of the HQ's main conference room. I was trying to be polite and not demand to know where Sockington and Penny were. We met with, well he's called Fatty, but I would rather call him, Mr. Scott, so we met with Mr. Scott who told us to prepare for the meeting. That we should not expect a warm greeting, but if Sockington did honor us with his presence that we should be delighted-well of course!

He called Sockington on a Top Secret wireless device. Within a moment I heard paws landing on stair steps. I turned from my seat on the floor (my choice) and there he was...Socks!

What an elegant, sleek, regal beast! Socks came right over to me sniffed my hand. I was told he wouldn't let me pet him, but he did! He even gave my hand a few welcoming licks. I still haven't washed it! Maybe I can get the DNA from it and clone a new Socks? Mwwwaahahahaha!

So anyway, Socks is fantastic. He's quite tall and his tail is impressively long, featuring a "tail light" (white tip) as I call it. He was also very friendly with Sam, but I'm not sure if it was because he liked Sam or that Sam's hands smelled like the grilled chicken sandwich he ate in the car on the drive up?

Maybe Socks was just being polite?

He certainly seemed calm and relaxed in front of the camera. You can tell he knows he's famous! He posed carefully for me, making sure he gave me his good side forward (with Socks, though, all sides are good!). I couldn't get over how much Socks looked like Tweetie. I mean, Tweetie looked like Mr. Sockington, excuse me!

I did my best to be witty and entertaining, but in truth, I think I bored Socks. Though he tried to stay with the conversation, it was just too beneath his standards.

Eventually, he decided he'd had enough and wanted to have a wee nap.

But what about meeting Tweetie??! Should we do the introductions? I'd finally gotten Tweetie within a football field (Hey, Socks Army HQ is big!) of Sockington, but I KNOW introductions have to be done properly, or you open a whole world of hurt on yourself!

Suddenly Penny entered the room and it was clear, as sweet and lovely as she is in person, she was also in NO MOOD to meet no stinkin' kitten!

I gulped hard. What had I done?! Was this just a foolish, selfish, idiotic move on my part? Clearly Penny was not happy. Socks didn't know what was waiting for him in the next room. Maybe I should just take Tweetie home with me and forget this ever happened! At least I got to meet The Most Famous Cat on the Internet and geez, everyone is going to be so jealous of me! Woohoo! Take that rich, creepy, materialistic, selfish, evil, elephant-eared family members, who shall remain nameless, but know who they are! Nyah!

What am I gonna do? What will become of Tweetie???

'til next time, World. 'til next time...

GUESS WHO?!!!

My journey with Tweetie ends today. Though I'll still be involved with his life, it'll be from a distance. I've been sick with some sort of stomach bug for a few days and my hormones are percolating at dangerous levels. I'm tired. A perfect day to drive a 280 mile round trip to Boston!

My brain isn't working. I hate being a woman sometimes. Get whacked out hormones, always at the worst possible time, then try to act like a "normal" person while under duress. Ugh.

At the last minute I told Sam I was in trouble and asked him what I should do. Instead of doing the trip solo, Sam offered to drive me. If the weather turned bad, which was likely, he'd have 4wd on his car and I'd not have the stress of the drive up. I didn't want to lean on him, but I had to admit it might be the best for most of us and I promised I'd buy gas and a load of Lox and Bagels at Rein's Deli on the way home. What that man won't do for fish, I swear.

The plan was to leave at 2pm to avoid the worst of Boston traffic. Before leaving, I spent some quality time playing and hanging out with Tweetie. All he wanted to do was sit on my lap, play while sitting on my lap or bite my pants. It was a true Hallmark moment.

I packed up some of Tweetie's favortie toys, a cat blanket that Food Lady brought us that smelled like Sockington, a few cans of food and Tweetie's Vet records. The last thing I packed was Tweetie's Adoption Contract.

Yes. Adoption. Contract. It seems that Food Lady has a bit of a crush on Tweetie to the point of feeling it may just be Kismet that Tweetie should come to live alongside his older twin, Sockington and his cohort in crime, Penny. I've known that this was a possibility since July 23rd. I even predicted it would happen! For some reason, I felt I needed to write down my gut feeling after I'd received a note from Jason, asking to come visit Tweetie. I sealed the prediction in an envelope and showed it to Sam to witness it. Now if I could only get my own Psychic Hotline, maybe I could afford my Vet bill!

I wasn't able to say anything about the possibility until enough time and meetings had passed so that everyone felt comfortable with the idea that maybe Tweetie was destined to be part of the family? Tweetie will be on probation once he arrives at The Socks Army HQ and it'll be up to Food Lady, Fatty, Socks & Penny whether or not Tweetie will stay on "forever."

Even if it doesn't work out, Tweetie can always come home to me and I'll find him, maybe not as an exciting home, but a home nonetheless. No pressure. No worries. There are NO villains here. First...let's get Tweetie to Boston and see what happens next.

We packed up the car and Sam put the car into "drive." Tweetie began crying hysterically. Within less than a block, I'd gotten out of the car and jumped into the back seat, where I stayed for the remainder of the trip. Tweetie was content once he had company. My hormones settled down once I started to pet him. I tried to push the thought out of my mind that this was it-this was the last few hours I was going to spend with Tweetie. I felt my gut lurch and tears well up in my eyes. Was it my tummy troubles returning or the inevitable sadness of letting go? I started this journey fully ready to be responsible for whatever the outcome: releasing Tweetie to the woods or finding him a home. It was never in the plan to keep him with my clutter, but I'd be lying if I said it wouldn't be tough to say goodbye.

Ready or not, it was time to carry on; to leave Connecticut and make our way northeast.

There's been some BIG, LIFE-CHANGING NEWS for Tweetie over the last 24 hours. Some of it I can divulge and some must stay "mum" for now. I've got lots of photos and memories to share. Please stay tuned. I'll have something up for you to read later today!

My little furballs are off to be spayed today. I won't see them again until tomorrow afternoon. I miss them already!

:::Crossing fingers::: Hope they do well!

Due to the generosity and compassion of so many people from all over the world, Winkles will be having her surgery today! I just shot this photo of her while she was getting ready to head to the Specialist for her procedure. Winkles is a real beauty and I just know that once her eye is removed, she'll feel so much more comfortable!

Years ago, I rescued a stray who had a severe eye injury and her eye needed to be removed. I cried when I got the news, thinking of the miserable future for my new foster. My Vet reminded me that cats adjust and don't mourn over such things and that I shouldn't worry. He was right. Sasha did well. I ended up adopting her as she was a geriatric kitty with lots of health problems, but we think she lived to be 21!

I also have more exciting news! We ended up getting more in donations than we needed for Winkles surgery. Normally, these funds would remain in our Angel Fund for the next kitten in need. Just about the same time we rescued Winkles, another kitten was rescued by another group, also needing emergency eye surgery. Sadly, this group could not afford the surgery, so the cat was facing a dire future.

It was decided that we would offer the funds to cover this kitten's eye surgery, as well, even though the kitten was with another rescue group. We feel that we're all in this together and since we were blessed with good fortune, thanks to all of you, we wanted to pay it forward.

So in a sense, with your donations we had a "BOGO" (Buy One, Get One) on cat rescues or rather a RORA? (Rescue One, Rescue Another?).

Regardless of what you call it-THANK YOU!

I'm very proud of Tweetie. In less than two weeks, he's come out of his angry shell. The once ferocious feline is now a cuddly bug. He's getting along well with his little friends, Sprinkles, Twinkles and Pixie and even spent all night with them last night and never once had to be sequestered to "his room" to give him a "time out" from the others.

Today we enjoyed some play time, which I also video taped! I hope to post some movies of the kittens as soon as I can work out some of the technical details. You'll laugh when you see Tweetie's reaction when he looks up and sees my big cat, Spencer looking down at him from the balcony railing!

The other kittens, too, are doing well. They're all growing, finally eating their food and truly have a wonderful time with each other. It makes me a bit sad to know that this is their last night together. Tomorrow, very early, the kittens go off to be spayed, while Tweetie and I go on a road trip. By Friday, all the kittens will have gone to their forever homes.

And where are Tweetie and I headed? It was one thing that Tweetie had an audience with Food Lady, Sockington's Mom, but now we've been invited to travel to Boston to visit The Socks Army HQ!

Tweetie and Sockington are going to MEET!

With any luck, tomorrow, from the road, I'll be updating our status on Twitter, as well as posting photos via TwitPic. If you keep any eye on my Twitter feed, you should see how we're doing.

The next question, I'm sure you're asking yourself is: Will TWEETIE BE COMING BACK WITH ME? Or will Tweetie be made a high ranking official of Socks Army OR, as rumors suggest, will Tweetie be asked to carry out orders as Sock's body double, thereby keeping Socks safe?

I can't answer that just now, but what I do know is, who knew? Who knew posting a photo and tweeting about a kitten would take us on this crazy journey?!

Fellow Tweetie Fans-

There've been quite a few exciting things going on behind the scenes here at Covered in Cat Hair HQ. Foremost, is the surprising offer we've received to have a High Ranking Official of The Socks Army come to Connecticut to visit Tweetie!

Rumors abound on whether or not this Official was determined to take a DNA sample, to finally put to rest the fears that Sockington had sired a kitten out of wedlock! What would Penny say? Or would she simply growl at Socks for his catty behavior?

Yesterday afternoon, our fears dissolved into joy as we welcomed our special guest, who was none other than Food Lady, herself! Once she entered our humble HQ, we were happy we'd spent all day Saturday cleaning the litter pans and scouring the food bowls. This was no ordinary visitor, no! This was one who's presence brought all the resident cats to full attention. After all, with can opener in hand, was Food Lady going to feed them, too?

Food Lady, was gracious and compassionate to her subjects. She quietly sipped a refreshment and asked politely about Tweetie. After a few minutes, it was clear, Food Lady need be delayed no longer so she was escorted to Tweetie's lodgings for their first meeting.

Tweetie was the perfect gentleman and ran out from his cat carrier hangout to greet Food Lady properly. She extended a hand to him, which he carefully sniffed. After a few moments, and NO biting, Food Lady began to pet Tweetie, to which he responded by deeply purring.

Food Lady also brought Tweetie his very own cherry red shakeymouse, which not only complemented the color of his coat, but was the perfect size for hours of enjoyment.

Tweetie's audience with Food Lady included a tour of the foster suite and meeting of the other foster kittens, Sprinkles, Twinkles & Pixie; along with a jolly play session and, of course, a one course meal, Friskies Pate, Turkey flavor with Chicken baby food blended with it.

All in all the day passed brilliantly and no one was harmed, though possibly a few fingers were nipped at, but only lightly. Tweetie was sad to see Food Lady go, but she assured him that she would keep in touch and hoped to see him again, soon.

Tweetie was overjoyed at the prospect, but being a kitten, was so tired from all the excitement, all he could do was fall asleep and dream of seeing Food Lady again.

More Sunday Sillies.