There are many reasons why I love and adore Philip. Here’s one…
#1 – He rescues kittens.
The week after Philip proposed, he was walking over with some laundry to wash some of his clothes. (Yes…he washes, dries and irons his own clothes. Praise the Lord for Mama Dial raising him right!) On his way over, he heard a TINY little “meeeeeow”! He walked over to the apartment building next to mine and saw a itty-bitty kitten huddled between a plant and the building.
He ran up to my apartment, told me what he saw and we ran back down to see if we could pick it up to bring it inside. Philip reached down and the poor little thing hissed, growled and tried to bite at Philip’s hand. What a feisty little character!
I ran upstairs, grabbed the pet carrier and Philip tried to pick it up again. After a few more tries, Philip reached back down, grabbed the nape of its neck and quickly thrust it into the pet carrier. We ran back inside with our disgruntled little friend.
That’s Ozzy, my handsome Himalayan kitty, in the background. Note his distance. Hehe.
After 30 minutes or so of the kitten’s growling, hissing and swatting, we figured we’d try to take it out of the cage and show it some affection. Philip reached into the cage, brought it close and started scratching the top of it’s head. A minute or so later, the once cantankerous critter was purring like a little freight train and half asleep in Philip’s hand.
After some maneuvering we realized it was a he. Philip decided we should name him Gob – pronounced Johb…like the Job in the Bible. (Why Gob? Its a reference to the character on the hilarious Fox TV show “Arrested Development.”) Because it was so late in the evening, there was nowhere we could take him, so we put him back in the pet carrier and he stayed in my bathroom overnight with a bowl of milk. As I was getting ready for work the next morning, I took him out of the carrier and held him for a few minutes. The little guy was terribly filthy. After a quick and painless little dip in the sink, however, he was all fresh and clean. Here he is sitting on my toilet seat lid nestled warmly in a handtowel with his milk bowl:
At this point, I knew he needed more sustenance and than the skim milk. No telling how long he’d been without his momma. He needed some kitten food and kitten milk. Because I live in Nashville, but work in Franklin…the only way I could get him the food is if I took him to work and stopped at PetSmart along the way. After a quick phone call to our office manager, I was given the go ahead to bring Gob and the pet carrier to the office. (Yes, my company is amazing!)
After annhilating the kitten food and milk I gave him, the little guy spent a majority of the afternoon asleep in my lap as I worked:
Unfortunately I had to give up Gob at the end of the day. And believe me…I was coming up with every reason in the world to keep this kitten. In the end, Philip convinced me it was for our own good that we gave him to the Nashville Cat Rescue. Both of my cats, Ozzy and Ella, were adopted from there. They take amazing care of the cats they get and I know they will help the little guy find a good home.
Though we spent less than 24 hours with Gob, we still think about him and wonder who the lucky family will be that adopts him. If you need family pet, get in touch with the Nashville Cat Rescue. They’ll help you find the perfect new addition. 
[...] in September I shared one of the many reasons I adore Philip. Here’s [...]
[...] Ode to Philip #1 – He rescues kittens. Ode to Philip #2 – He makes everything fun. Ode to Philip #3 – He’s helping me toilet train my cats. (We totally gave up on this, by the way. Turns out getting 2 cats toilet trained while also trying to move to a new home is NOT a good situation.) [...]