Guest Star: Ronan Dex the cat From Aruba

How does a tiny kitten from Aruba, land of beautiful beaches and warm weather, end up in central New Hampshire where we have more snow days than beach days?

Hey there! My name is Ronan Dex. I didn’t realize it at the time but apparently, I was a very lucky kitten right from the start. I started out my life in a cage on the sunny island of Aruba. Can’t say I really remember much of that time, but my human mom tells me that Nine Lives Aruba saved my cat mom from a “Kill Box”. Doesn’t sound like a good place to be and thank goodness those special people found my cat mom in time!

Shortly after my cat mom arrived at Nine Lives Aruba, she delivered us, and those great people made sure to take excellent care of us so that we could find our fur-ever homes.

My human parents had been living without a kitten in their life and that’s just not right!!
One Saturday afternoon they decided to visit my Auntie Terry where she works. Auntie Terry is amazing and organizes trips for volunteers to travel to Aruba and help all of us kittens (oh and they help puppies too). My mom saw a picture of me and just knew I was the right kitten for them.

Mom convinced Dad that it was finally time for a kitten, so she placed an order with Auntie Terry for a cheese pizza, a round of drinks and me!! I’m pretty sure that’s why I like cheese pizza so much.

One morning they gave me some deworming medicine and packed me up into a travel cage. It was a very long day and kind of scary and boy did I make a mess of myself but when I landed in Boston my Auntie Terry took me out of my travel cage and gave me a sponge bath with a couple handi-wipes. She managed to get most of the poop off me, but did I still smell. PU!!! Before I knew it, I was back in the travel cage and driving to New Hampshire.

After driving for a couple more hours, we stopped at a parking lot and Auntie Terry took me out again. There was a lady there and she didn’t even care that I stunk like a dirty diaper. She took me from Auntie Terry and hugged me and kissed me. I couldn’t help myself, I just started purring like crazy. There was a big guy there with the lady and he was rubbing my head and telling me how happy he was to meet me. That’s when I realized that these were my Fur-ever family. I purred all the way home!!

As soon as we arrived momma showed me where my litter box was and when I was done using it, she gave me a bath (which I really didn’t want) but the warm towel and gentle rubbing afterwards was great!

I couldn’t believe it, but they let me run around everywhere and just smiled and laughed at everything I did. They played with me until 3:00 in the morning. Once they had climbed into bed, I meowed, and they picked me right up and put me on the bed. I slept between them and just to make sure that didn’t leave me, I would stretch out every once in a while, to touch them and make sure they were still there.

That was a long time ago. I was just a baby then! Now I’m a big boy and I’m going to be 2 years old on St. Patrick’s Day. Most mornings now I clean daddy’s beard for him and in return he rubs my head just the way I like it. I make sure that momma doesn’t feel left out, so I bite her nose and lick her forehead. She absolutely loves it! I go for walks with my harness on and sit by the fire pit all curled up in momma’s lap to make sure she’s ok. I even offer to try out samples when momma or daddy are cooking.

When I miss the warm sandy beaches of Aruba, I lay on my back under momma’s china cabinet on top of the heat vent and if I close my eyes, it almost feels like Aruba or at least that’s what momma tells me.

And that’s how a kitten from Aruba ends up in New Hampshire happily ever after!