Spark & Ember

In February, my four kids and I lost our home to a fire. A wiring issue caused a light in our kitchen to catch fire in the wee hours of the morning. Luckily, everyone was able to get out of the house, and I called 911 as we watched our house go up in flames.

Obviously, it was a shock and a tremendous loss. We were very blessed to have an amazing circle of family and friends and a generous and supportive community, though.

A few weeks after the fire, the kids and I returned to gather some of our things that were salvageable. In doing so, we discovered three small kittens living inside the house (well, what was left of it!).

Of course, the kids fell in love at first sight, and we attempted to lure them out of the house with treats and words of encouragement.

Unfortunately, we were only able to rescue the gray and white tabby because the others were too skittish.

We named the rescued kitten Ember because we thought it was a cute name (sort of like Amber) that described how we came to adopt him. We quite literally rescued him from the embers of the fire!

Ember quickly became attached to my oldest daughter. Kelsey kept him in her room, and that’s where he preferred to stay for the first few weeks of living with us. Slowly, but surely though, he ventured out of his safe haven to explore around the house and get to know the other members of his new family: Billy, Katie, Taylor, and myself.

After a few playful interactions and some cuddle time, Ember began to trust and love us as much as we loved our new addition—well, almost!

A couple of months later, I was scrolling through Facebook as we are all apt to do these days, and I came across a post from a local grocery store that I follow to keep up with the weekly sales.

The owner had posted a picture of an older kitten on Facebook that she had rescued from around the same area where we used to live before the fire, advertising the little guy as free to a good home.

After examining the picture for a moment and considering the source, I started putting two and two together. I had my suspicions that this cute orange tabby was part of the family!

I didn’t want to get the kids’ hopes up, though, so I kept quiet about this exciting possibility until I could do a little detective work!

After looking at some more pictures and calling the lady to ask some questions, I was convinced—this was Ember’s brother! We wasted no time in driving over to adopt him.

We just couldn’t wait to reunite him with his long-lost sibling! We debated on a name for a few hours and eventually settled on Spark because of his orange fur and of course, the reference to how we first met our new little furbaby!

The  boys were skeptical of one another at first, and it’s hard to say whether they remembered each other or not. Like Ember, Spark spent the first few weeks to himself as he became accustomed to his new home.

Eventually, he felt comfortable enough to hang out with us in the common areas of the house, and it’s been all uphill from there.

Emby and Sparkyboy (their nicknames) do everything together. Well, they mostly sleep (LOL!), but they also play together, go on nightly adventures around the neighborhood, and of course, fight—things all siblings do!

The whole family delights in their antics, and they have brought so much joy to our home and family and has helped us heal from the tragedy of losing our home.