Entrant's First Name
Meron Moroz

Bio
Both Stash and KhaliKo were adopted through the SPCA as rescue kittens. Stash along with 2 brothers was born under the floor of the house my son was living in, abandoned by the mother. The 3 of them were making 'noise' and my son crawled under the building to see what was up. Stash 'fell out' of the insulation and Adam then discovered the other 2 kittens. Their eyes were not yet open. Tamara, my son's partner, tried to look after the kittens herself but soon discovered that she was not up to the task and took them to the SPCA to be fostered until adoptable age. (There's a whole other story here.) I adopted Stash and my son and his partner adopted Cervantes and Q when they came of age.

KhaliKo Kitty came to me as Faith shortly after coming on board as a volunteer with our local SPCA in the fall of 2015. Here's the story of her arrival as told by one of the employees at our branch, Blythe is now the branch manager. " Upon arrival, she was near death, not even registering a temperature. I rushed her upstairs to the vets, who dropped everything to do what they could to save her - Justene's quick and precise actions saved her life. Her paw was bandaged because that is where they entered her vein to inject fluids...within moments, you could see the vitality re-entering her! It was quite the experience to witness first hand. The first thing she did was start chomping at all the bandages around her paw! So, since she was far too small for a cone to prevent this, Justene used her little trick of wrapping bandage around the neck to create a "straight jacket" effect so she wouldn't rip her iv out. She looked pretty pathetic but so adorable ♥ " This note was accompanied with some pictures of those early moments in the SPCA/vet care. For the 1st week one of the vet techs took 'Faith', as her name was when she was taken into care, home in the evenings. After that week she was given to me to foster which, after 3 weeks, turned into a Foster Fail. I just couldn't imagine giving her up and by that point Stash was totally devoted to KhaliKo. While in my care, and when I still believed she was going to be adopted on, I called her Calico Kitty because I found Faith difficult to use and it wouldn't matter anyway. After I adopted her it was pointed out to me by my vet's assistant that Calico was a pretty lame name for a calico cat so I changed the accent and spelling to KhaliKo Kitty. She suits that name just fine and her and Stash are the best of friends. Together they are the main characters in my cartooning (a developing talent) efforts as BatCat & Goblin #ChampionsOfTheUnderdog. Kinda' feline superheros. They give me much artistic inspiration.

I alluded to a further story in the 1st paragraph and I just might have space for it!

I love animals, of all kinds but have always had a special appreciation for cats. My whole life there has always been a cat. I am also a fickle cat appreciater, I like solid coloured cats; they have always been a preference, especially black cats. At the time Stash was born I had 2 cats having just recently buried Chance at the ripe old age of 18. I wasn't planning on getting a kitten. The children were leaving home and it could be the time to start thinking about taking some time out for myself to travel or whatever. For the better part of a week I was having a nightly dream about a black and white kitten, complete with moustache. Nothing particular happened in the dreams I just woke up with this image of a black and white kitten. Remember, I'm a solid coloured cat person not looking for a new addition into the family. After a particularly vivid dream one morning I crossed the hall to talk to my daughter about it thinking that if I verbalized it that would exorcise the dream. She, of course, was excited about getting a new kitten; I assured her we were not. A couple of days later my daughter and I were at the hairdressers. Waiting my turn I was reading the local paper and there was an ad from and off-island SPCA Branch featuring a black and white kitten named Loki ... Loki is the same name as my daughter's cat that I was inheriting. We had a laugh about that and acknowledged the coincidences. That weekend, the Saturday before Mother's Day, I was setting up at the market when my son came running to my booth, breathless. I can't remember what he was there about but he said "and you have to hurry! I have three kittens in the car and we are taking them to the SPCA!" Well, you can imagine my shock! I took the moment to ask my son what colour they were. He said, "one is cream coloured, one orange and the other one is black and white!" When he mentioned the black and white one I looked at him and said, "I think that's my kitten" and smiled like a Cheshire Cat.

At first they believed all the kittens were female and I'd pre-named mine Lily. I felt a bit strange about a cat named Lily with a moustache, beauty mark and a goatee, but I knew, without a doubt, that was suppose to be my cat. We picked the cat up from the vet after his alteration surgery, that's when the vet informed me that she was actually a he. When we got him home my daughter and I brainstormed names, just firing them back and forth, after a rhyming moment we came up with Stash and it stuck!

Species
cat