The year was 2003. The date–August 31. It turned out to be the day we rescued the kitten now known as Ms. Annie.

Of course, at the time, she didn’t have a name, and we didn’t even know if we would keep her.

Here’s what I wrote the following day.

Warning: Do not try this at home.

We had just hit the first bit of beach past Swanzy Beach Park on our early walk yesterday when the normal sounds of surf and the occasional passing car gave way to an unmistakable lost kitten cry. At first we thought it was coming from up in that scrawny tree in the background of the top photo. Then we looked down, where a drainage culvert opens up onto the sand just a few feet below the two lane stretch of Kamehameha Highway.

There she was. A gray and white kitten in good health, probably about six weeks old. And she was trying to scramble up the sandy slope towards the highway. Of course we couldn’t leave her there. So we snatched her off the beach and headed for home where, after several meals, many brushes with the flea comb, and lots of sleep, she’s perking up just fine, thank you.

Here’s the first photo of The Kitten Now Known as Ms. Annie. Meda’s got a good hold on her after we pulled her from the beach below that tree across the road in the background.

Mission accomplished!

And later, here she is after getting some sleep and being cleaned up a bit.

There’s a clear sex difference in reactions of the other cats. All the females, with the exception of Harriet, are interested but not bothered by the sudden appearance of a kitten. The males, with the exception of Mr. Duke, were quite upset and agitated, although they’ve calmed down a bit this morning.

Are we going to adopt her? I don’t know for sure, but she did sleep in our bed last night along with Kili and Miki.

“Are we going to adopt her?” I guess that was a rhetorical question. Of course we were going to adopt her!

And so lucky that we did.