Five years of NOE!!!!!!!!

Today is the fifth anniversary of the day that we found Noe in our backyard on 23rd street!

As the story goes....

On the early morning of Sunday, September 3, 2000, there was a 5.2 magnitude earthquake centered near Napa. It jolted us both awake. After the earthquake subsided, we heard a little chirping noise outside the house. We figured it was a bird.

The next morning, Dick went into the backyard to investigate the chirping. At the time, the backyard was completely overgrown. Dick found a tiny baby kitten tucked away within some bushes. We now fondly refer to that bush as "the kitten bush". :) We decided to leave the baby kitten in the backyard, hoping that her momma cat would come back for her. We went out for the day to enjoy the Ala Carte Ala Park festival in Golden Gate Park (which used to be a Labor Day tradition with our friends)

When we came home, the tiny kitten was still there, and mewing her little head off. Poor little thing.

We realized that she probably wouldn't survive another night by herself, and decided to take her in. We brought her to a 24-hour vet on Fillmore Street. They gave her a quick physical, said she "should survive" and taught us how to feed her kitten milk-replacement (by bottle) every 4 hours.

The tiny kitten didn't have a name for her first few days with us. I later found out it was because Dick didn't think she would survive, and he was afraid that we would get too attached to her if we named her, and she didn't make it.

After we had her for a few days, Dick walked downstairs, and told me that he had thought of the perfect name for the kitten. He said, "Let's name her Noe. "

Dick used to live on Noe Street, in Noe Valley (he had just moved to 23rd in April 2000). I thought it was the perfect name!

After we adopted Noe, we found several more kittens in the backyard - (hence, "the kitten bush"). Noe's half-brother, Kazoo, lives with our friend Willo! We were eventually able to help our neighbor trap Noe's Mamma (the source of all of these kittens, of course) and she had her spayed at the San Francisco SPCA. After our neighbor brought her home after being spayed, Noe's poor Momma cat ran away, probably terrified. We never saw her again.

But then again, we never discovered any more kittens in the kitten bush, either.