Last week, I wrote about some great things I am fortunate to have in my life:  DH, yarn, a specific cat.

This week, I have even more great things to write about:  specifically, Ben and Jerry’s "Birthday Cake" ice cream some really fabulous, generous knitters and blog readers, not to mention family and friends!  My heartfelt thanks to all of you — some of whom I have never even met!  You all blew right through the $121 fundraising goal:  now the Cat Adoption Team has almost $200 OVER $200! to help with the food bank, or finding homes for homeless felines.

I am touched, and proud, and happy.  What a perfect birthday present!  It’s just what I wanted!  Thank you, thank you, thank you.

(Now, those of you who said you were going to contribute, and haven’t yet — Rock Star — get on the stick.  Oh, and one or two brothers.  http://www.firstgiving.com/cheezfrenz, hint, hint. )

But if I thought it just couldn’t get any better, I was wrong.

See, I’ve had my eye on one of CAT’s cats — a siamese mix named Victor — who’s been living over at a local Petsmart, waiting for a forever home.  Well — a second forever home.  Poor Victor’s owner had to give him up, because he or she had to move into a nursing home, and couldn’t keep 13-year-old Victor.

On top of that, Victor had stopped seeing the v-e-t a few years ago.  Whether because of money or transportation or forgetfulness, I don’t know — but Victor no longer has any teeth.  He can only eat canned food.  (I know what you’re thinking:  yeah, poor kitteh.  Well, it is sad, kind of.)

I met Victor at the Petsmart store a couple of weeks ago — he’s a sweetie — and when I got home, I looked him up on CAT’s website.  I even took the ASPCA’s personality test and found that ol’ Victor and I were a perfect match!

Uh-oh.

See, it’s not that DH has ever said I can’t get a third cat.

What he actually said was, I have a choice:  between him, and a third cat.

And it didn’t help that the reason I was sitting at home surfing on a Friday night was that DH was out with some buddies, watching college hockey and drinking.  It was sort of a tough call.  But in the end, looking up Victor on the CAT website was how I found out about the Care-A-Thon Challenge, so it’s all good — right?

Right.  Except that poor ol’ toothless Victor remained on my mind, although I knew I really couldn’t bring him home.  My belurved Morgan kitteh would pretty much hate that.  Sigh.

Then, on the day of the actual birthday, DH took me out to one of my favorite places for dinner — which happens to be near the Petsmart.  About halfway through dinner, I decided that to round the birthday off nicely, we would visit Victor on the way home.

You can probably imagine that this idea was terrifying to DH.  I mean, here it is the actual birthday, I’ve had a glass of wine, and now I want to go visit this poor elderly toothless cat that’s a perfect personality match and ripe for adoption.  Let’s face it:  DH can’t exactly say "no"…  the best he can hope for is that we don’t get there before they close, or that Victor is no longer at the Petsmart.

No such luck.  There was Victor, sitting in his cage.  But when I asked to visit him, the CAT representative got a little confused — because at first she thought I was the woman who was coming to take Victor home!  YAY!!

So not only did I get to give Victor a few goodbye skritchies, but I get to keep DH, too.  YAY!!

And thanks once again to everyone who contributed to CAT!

Best. Birthday. Ever!