Say Hello to... NACHO!




I am here to share Nacho's story. For as long as I could remember I've always wanted a cute little kitten for Christmas. Once Brandon and I settled in at our new house back in South Jordan we brought Dory into our home and I was so excited to finally experience a pet cat after never being allowed one while living at home. Brandon and I loved having Dory at our home in the one year before leaving for South Korea. Even with Dory in the picture though, I still pictured that tiny little Kitten in a Christmas box under the tree, a dream I've had for several years. 
Some of our last pictures with Dory before leaving

Fast forward a few months and we were finally settling into our new home here in South Korea. I'd been feeling a bit lonely and was missing Dory insanely. There is a huge problem with stray cats here in South Korea so I was constantly being reminded that there were cats all around me but none waiting for me when I got home. Brandon and I talked a few times about whether getting a cat here would be a possibility and if so how we would go about getting one. We mentioned it to our friends in town and they suggest we steal one off the street. Something we had considered but were also worried about as an adult cat can be hard to domesticate if it has been living on the streets for long enough.

Last weekend David and Hyelan invited us to go on a hike with them. We agreed and had a great hike. A little longer and more challenging than I would have liked but we got a great peek at the leaves just as they are starting to change. While we were hiking, David mentioned that they had recently stumbled across a house that had 5 or 10 kittens hanging around in their yard. He said he thought they surely didn't want all of those kittens and remembering we had mentioned looking for a cat a few weeks back, he offered to drive us to the house and to ask if they would be willing to part with one. I was so surprised! Brandon and I had slowed our search as we weren't sure if we would be able to handle the hassle of arranging documents to go back home with a kitty so we thought we would try to wait until we got back home to finally get one. However, everything just happened so quickly and the excitement was too much! We drove by the house where they had seen the kittens and Hyelan spoke with the lady in Korean to see if we could take one. The lady was very friendly and seemed more than willing to part with one. She explained the kittens were just born in June so they were just 3 or 4 months old but she just leaves food out for them and they stick around her yard in return. We couldn't understand what was being said but after about 5 minutes of them speaking and looking around the lady grabbed a box for us and stuffed a little orange kitty inside. 



Like I said, the hike was pretty hard for me but we saw cool bugs which is usually an indicator of whether or not Brandon had a good time. Beautiful Chinese Maples in fall!

I was in shock! I was so thrilled and also anxious as that little thing was NOT happy about being plucked from it's family and shoved in a box with the lid closed tight. He cried and wailed all the way home but luckily we weren't far from home. We let him out of the box as soon as we got home and he cried while he observed his new environment. Because we weren't expecting to obtain a new kitten on this day, we ran to the store to buy some cat food and to search for supplies. We weren't able to find a litter box in town so we set up Paper towel stations while we waiting for a litter box to be sent from online. The kitty seemed a little scared but after only a couple of hours he seemed to really warm up. The lady had picked the sweetest and friendliest guy to send home with us and he was a FIEND for belly rubs. 

Pre bath, immediately post bath, clean boy!

He was very dirty from a life of country living so after he seemed a bit more comfortable I gave him a bath. What a beautiful little kitty once his white fur was washed up a bit and he smelled fresher than a daisy with our flowery body wash scent lingering. Once we were sure he was a boy, we started talking about what name would fit. Some popular contenders were Fanta, Crunch (you should see this thing with a cardboard box), and Mango. It took us a couple of days before we finally settled on Nacho. It just felt right and the very next day....

I'm telling you, you just can't make this stuff up!

Having a kitten is a lot of work! It has been a big adjustment over the last week but we really just love him so much. He is so sweet and always down for a cuddle or a belly rub. He learned how to use the litter box as soon as it showed up but we are still struggling a bit with him digging around for fun... loudly in the middle of the night. He eats like crazy and is already starting to plump up a little bit as he was so skinny and tiny when we got him. He likes to play differently than Dory does, but I think we are all just figuring everything out together. He meows like crazy and will get straight up in your face if we try to eat in bed or leave the bedroom door open when we are eating. He can smell those Ramen noodles and he doesn't care if the pan you are eating them out of is boiling hot, he demands he gets in on the action A.S.A.P.!

Whether the official middle name is Libre or Cheddar.... well I'll let you pick and try not to correct you if you pick wrong. I can't wait for everybody to meet this sweet guy when we bring him home!

P.S. you may have noticed his tail is a little funny looking. Apparently it is a genetic trait that is very prevalent in a lot of Asian countries. It looks exactly like Harry Potter's scar and yes, we did consider 'Harry' for a while because of it. It doesn't seem to bother him at all though and it's kind of a cool reminder of where he came from! 





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