Apollo, was a spur of the moment cat. He kind of just fell in our path. I don't know how else to tell his story honestly.
One random day I told J that Nova needed a friend and that we should eventually get a cat or another dog. He of course said HELL NO! but I went on about it anyway. Only I reasoned with him telling him that I didn't think we needed another animal now and that I am willing to wait years to get a cat or another dog. I explained to him that I wanted a cat like Kourtney Kardashian once had, I looked up the breed, which was a Bengal cat, and I showed him pictures of how gorgeous they look, which he agreed was a gorgeous cat. I looked up the price for one and practically threw my phone across the room because no way in hell was I going to put a 1,500 down payment on a cat. Nope, reality hit me and I realized I was NOT a Kardashian. Haha! I literally told him never mind but kept a possibility open.
Days had passed since we had, had that random conversation and by then we probably forgot we even had the conversation too. We were on our way to take nova to our local Pet Supplies Plus store for a grooming, because a nail trim and a bath was much needed. They usually take about 45 minutes to bathe her and trim her nails and give her a paw wax so we decided to kill some time. We intended on going to Marshall's because... it's Marshall's, you can kill time AND money there. Haha! However, as we are pulling into the plaza where Marshall's is, we passed by a pretty well known pet store. I love going into pet stores just for the hell of it to see all the cute puppies and hamsters and bunnies.
Any who, we stopped there to look at puppies. I ended up playing with the hamsters and J wandered around waiting for me to tell him let's go. That was until he saw something move slightly inside the seemingly empty cat loft area. He peeped inside a little cubby and saw a curled up little brown and black cat sleeping soundly. He turned around quickly calling my name and telling me I needed to see this cat. I turned around, placing the hamster back in it's cage and rolled my eyes in a "c'mon seriously you want me to see a cat?" kind of way. He looked at me and said, "Isn't that the kind of cat we were talking about the other day?" I scrunched my eyebrows and walked faster to the cat loft thinking there is no way that this pet store was going to have a Bengal cat.
"It was in fact a marble coat Bengal cat, and the only cat in the cat loft."
Before I could look into the little cubby it was curled in a little boy and his grandma were there. The little boy highly interested in the cat and the grandma willing to buy it for him, only the little boy changed his mind last minute and they walked off. I then went towards the cubby and peeked in while on my tip toes. It was in fact a marble coat Bengal cat, and the only cat in the cat loft. J asked the associate what kind of cat it was to confirm and it was indeed a Bengal cat. We asked to see it and they put us in a room and brought him out. He was so tiny and so very cute. Right away he was running around and trying to attack our shoelaces. J and I looked at each other like, "this is unreal, we were JUST talking about Bengal cats. How in the world?!" We talked to the associate who worked there and she told us his price... *ahem* $4,000 *ahem*. I looked at J and said (pardon my French) "Fuck. that" I knew this pet store was known for it's ridiculous prices, we had seen a Great Dane there before even got Nova and they were asking for just as much maybe even $8,000 and we walked out like NOPE! Haha! J being the person that he is, asked the associate if she was kidding. She laughed and said no. He then talked to he on the side asking if there was anyway we could lower the price. She explained she would have to talk to her manager and see what she says. They then negotiated prices. He managed to get it down to a reasonable and affordable price after taking off the extra things that the cat would come with which was, free bag of litter, free litter box, free food, free spay/neuter at their preferred clinic etc. and even offered to pay upfront rather than finance. They agreed and we however had to leave to get Nova from the groomers. We hadn't fully decided if we really wanted him and they told us if we wanted him they will hold him for us up until closing time. We said we would come back after getting Nova and if we didn't then that would mean we weren't getting him. The manager agreed to that and we went on our way to pick up Nova.
We had talked in the car and debated, "Did we really have the time and money to care for a cat?" "Was this something we really wanted?" and then we talked about the coincidence of it all, I was JUST talking about getting a Bengal cat and the associated at the pet store actually agreed to our price offer which was thousands lower than their asking price. How did this cat just fall into our path like that? I wasn't sure if we were ready to bring in another animal, J was onboard on getting him and I was on the fence. I knew we didn't need this cat but I'm also a sucker for animals too and couldn't say no.
So we got him, this time bringing Adam with us to pick him up. When we got there they let us take him into the small room to play with him again as they brought out the paperwork for him and we signed some things. And as it turns out one of the breeders name was Adam, Universal sign 2. Then we find out that his birthday is the same day as J's, universal sign 3. I mean c'mon this cat was destined to fall into our path. Adam fell in love with him right away and was excited that we were actually bringing it home with us.
When we got home we had to figure out how to introduce this tiny cat to our huge dog. We brought him into the house and called in Amira. She looked inside the crate we brought him in and with a shocked face backed up and started crying. It was the cutest thing, she cried saying, "Oh my gawd, he's so cuuute!"
We kept him in the crate for a little while so that the kids and the dog could observe from afar while he adjusted. It was only a matter of time until Adam took him out and held him and him and Amira argued over who gets to hold him and for how long. Poor Cat.
When it came to naming him, we wanted something as powerful as Nova's. We had the names, Marshall, because that's where we were supposed to go instead of the pet store. We thought of the name Timon, from the lion king because he would stand on his back legs randomly. We also thought of naming him Leo because his star sign is a Leo but then quickly realized that my sister named her new puppy Leo and we didn't want to copy. Haha. Then, we thought of the name Apollo, it was astrological like Nova and it was also the name of the boxer in the Rocky movies. Needless to say, it stuck.
Sometimes I forget we have a cat. He is always hiding in my closet curled up in my folded sweaters or on top of Adams bed curled in his blanket. Life with him has been ok. He has his moments where he will run throughout the house. His version of the zoomies I guess. He has tendencies to hide and then when someone is walking he will chase them and attack their leg. It's funny and annoying at the same time. Haha. Poor Amira has gotten the worst of it, he likes to mess with her while she's sleeping. Haha. Nova and him are not the best of friends but I think Nova doesn't realize how big she is in comparison to him and her way of playing is a lot more rough than he'd like. You rarely see him and her in the same room at the same time. They co-exist just fine as long as long as they don't interact with each other. haha.
Also, if anyone has any tips on how to get the dog to stay out of the litter, please shoot them in my direction because Nova thinks Apollo's poop is Manna from heaven I swear, and it is so disgusting. The last thing I need is for Nova to get sick from consuming the cat litter. Which is also an item we have been testing. We've tried variations of the arm and hammer brand, fresh step crystals, but the cat litter we found that works for us, as far as having less dust and covers up odors is Pretty Litter. It is pretty pricey but a bag is supposed to last 2 months and it has proven to us to be well worth it. Other cat litters would always find it's way outside of the box but this litter since it has a more sandy feel to it, rarely if ever leaves the box unless Apollo does it himself. Not to mention the way it offers a way to keep up with his health. The litter changes color when he pees and certain colors indicate healthy urine to a possible infection. It's pretty awesome if I do say so myself.
As far as what we feed such a breed, we found that whole hearted cat food works best with him, both dry and wet food. We tried to switch up his food so that we didn't have to go 2 places for his and nova's food but that switch up was not the way to go for Apollo, his bowels were ridiculous and I'm pretty sure he was getting stomach aches from it. So we stuck to Whole Hearted and it's been going great so far. He still poops like a dang dog but at least it's solid and healthy to say the least.
All in all, do I think we made a great decision in getting him? I'm working on it. Don't get me wrong, I love Apollo, he's so funny and so damn cute but he is such a jerk. And I think all cat owners can say the same thing about their cats. Am I right? Let's face it, cats are assholes but we love them nonetheless.
So here's to Apollo and all other asshole cats! May they always plot our deaths but still expect us to feed and fend for them till death do us part! Haha! Gotta love them!
Please feel free to comment below your funny cat stories or if you own a Bengal cat tell me your experiences!
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