Steph Bee's Honey Pit

Sprigatito & Chingu

On December 28, 2023, my husband saw an orange cat climbing up a bush across the street. The cat was chittering at a squirrel and trying to catch it. The next morning, December 29, the same orange cat showed up outside of our patio. We opened the door just wide enough for the cat to come in if he wanted to.

He wanted to come in.

As soon as he was inside, I slid the patio door shut. Startled, the cat looked around, found the door closed, and just kept walking deeper into our apartment.

As any normal person would do, I picked the cat up. He was super docile and didn't mind me holding him at all. I carried him to my sons and said, "Look what I found."

Youngest Son's first question was, "Can we keep him?"

Because he is such a friendly cat, we decided that the cat couldn't possibly be feral. We took him to PetSmart to see if he had a chip. He didn't have one. We posted pictures of him on all the lost pet sites. We called surrounding complexes and asked them if they have an email blast or some way to reach all of their residents. We replied to all lost cat ads that even just remotely looked like the cat we found.

A few days in, we named him Sprigatito. It's a Pokémon name of a little bush kitten creature. Since Sprigatito loves bushes, it makes sense for that to be his name.

Unable to find where he came from, we took him to get a chip with our information. We took him to the veterinarian and got him checked out and all the shots a cat off the street needs.

One special thing about Sprigatito is that he loves company. He loves sitting near me when I'm at the computer. After a while, we thought he should have a second cat. That's how we got Chingu. We adopted Chingu from a kitten rescue where we had helped socialize kittens in the past.

Chingu is the Korean word for "friend." Because he is Sprigatito's best friend.

We are now a two-cat household. We're not actively looking to add any pets, but if one were to come into our lives, we're ready to love her or him as much as we love the two we have.