Phoenix is the cat that I adopted after Cinders died.
Phoenix's story is tied closely to Cinders's story. In the last few weeks of her life, Cinders was doing very poorly. One Tuesday, when I was sick with some crud that was going around, I woke up and measured my temperature at 104. I said to myself, "I'm going to do only one thing today, and that's take myself to the hospital." When I went into the kitchen to check on Cinders, her eyes were fully dilated, she had wet herself, she was unable to stand up, and she was trying to meow in distress. My statement changed to, "I'm going to do only one thing today, and that's take my cat to the vet."
When we walked in, the vet rushed her in the back, and had me sign a paper to start "emergency life-saving procedures" on her. They said that they would get a cat from the pound for a blood transfusion; I just muttered at them, and went back home to fall back into bed. My fever went down the next day, but Cinders stayed at the vet until Friday. I picked her up, spent the weekend with her, and when she collapsed again on Sunday night, I took her to the emergency clinic and told them "no more".
When I went back to the vet on Monday (to cancel the follow-up appointment that Cinders had), the vet asked if I wanted to meet the blood donor kitty that they had adopted from the pound. They brought out this fluffy grey kitty, and said that they had had an office contest to name him - the name "phoenix" had won, for something appropriately linked to the fire theme of Cinders's name. He was going to be the new office kitty, but they said that he was available for adoption (in case I knew anyone who wanted a cat).
I went back to visit Phoenix again two weeks later.
I came back in two more weeks with a kitty carrier with his name on it.
I think it's karmically nifty that Phoenix tried to save Cinders's life, but ended up saving his own - he had only one day left at the pound when t he vet adopted him. When I first brought him home, he hid for a week; after a month, he realized that he had a home, and was friendly and hyper.
He's a playful kitty, and likes to look out at the birds outside. (Of course he's extremely frustrated that he can't catch them, because we have a force field barrier (aka a window). Suffer indoors, poor beast, it's for your own good.) His favorite toys include feather-on-a-stick, jittery hedgehog, milk jug pull ring, and fake leaf. He likes to watch nature specials on TV so he can stalk birds, otters, moles, and David Attenborough.