After we lost Maya, Diane wanted a pet she could cuddle. She remembered falling in love with a hairless sphynx cat when we picked up Maya, so she began searching. Unfortunately, the first site she found turned out to be a scam page which we fell for (long story). The good news is that it taught us to only deal with reputable breeders who register their litters with TICA (The International Cat Association) and CFA (Cat Fanciers Association).

She found a breeder outside of Denver, Colorado, who had a short waiting list and three breeding female cats. A short time later, there was a new litter, and Diane had a chance to make a choice. She decided on the red male kitten. Now, what do you name a red male hairless sphynx kitten? Rusty? Eric (The Red)? Burnie? Slick? Dennis? Yoda? James Carville? After much debate, she chose Opie.

We made our plans to fly out to Denver on January 11 to pick him up. The breeder was expecting a child, but it wasn't due until a little later in the month. Of course, January 9, her water broke and she delivered her second child in the hospital the next day. We would need to rent a car and drive an hour north of Denver to pick up the kitten. No problem.

The morning of January 11, however, Diane didn't feel good physically. She didn't know what was wrong. Maybe it was a reaction to her new medication, but whatever it was, she would not be able to fly. So David flew out to Denver to pick the kitten up and bring it back to Atlanta. Opie turned out to be a great little traveler, with no whimpers either in the car ride back to the hotel or on the plane for three and a half hours back home.