I've had my fair share of kittens and cats throughout my life. But never a cat that has a whisper of a squeak. Bella, my new kitten, appears to be a whispering "squeaker". I don't know if it's because she hasn't found her voice yet or if this is her "meow". Whatever it is, it's cute as can be.

Squeak, I'm hungry, squeak play with me, SQUEAK, here I am, look at me. Sometimes Bella doesn't even make noise she just opens her mouth and pretends. I don't have pictures yet, I will try to find one as adorable as her in the meantime, but however adorable, fun, cute and sweet she is, she squeaks all the time, I already have one demanding cat, Skitzi, how am supposed to juggle two? I'm sure I'll figure it out, when I have to.

Let me tell you how I found Bella. It was a particularly cold night here in Houston, it was also the beginning of the end of our drought. It was not really raining hard, but rather just enough to piss you off. I was out walking the dogs, all of them, on this fantastic night and I heard a distress call, loud and distinct, coming from the gutter, MEOW, MEOW, MEOW.

I pull this SCREAMING, MEOWING, dirty, tiny wet kitten out of the dirt and the sludge. Biting and screaming and meowing. I manage to get her home, meow, meow, meow. And I give her a bath MMMEEEEOOOOOWWWW. My husband immediately lays down the law. "We are not keeping that kitten"...... Ya right. He only had to look at her and give her a pet and he was in love with her. Kittens can be very persuasive with their cuteness. Who can resist a scared, lonely kitten?

The next day Bella made herself at home. She carefully checked out every nook and cranny, Scouted the dogs, all of them, and the other two cats. Learned where the food and water was locate, and with a little rearranging on my part, learned how to get to it. Found out about the littler box and how to get over the baby gate. But she was still very skittish around "the humans". She had already conquered the boxer, but she wasn't sure about us. Go figure. Such a typical cat attitude.

In all her explorations, she wound up getting stuck behind the TV. Squeak. "What was that?" I asked my husband, "Is the TV squeaking?" I got over to the television to check on the noise. There's Bella, looking up at me and making the sorriest excuse of a noise. Where did her voice go?

Just last night she had been screaming at me, help me, save me, meoooow. And now there's just barely a whisper of a sound coming from her, a barely audible squeak. I thought maybe she had lost her voice, after all, it was cold and wet and she had been yelling at me. But now here I sit with my two week new kitten, and you know what I hear? That whisper of a sound, squeak. I think she wants to play, I know she's not hungry. If this is her meow, if this is her voice, then I'm pretty sure she is happy with us and her home.