So the Silver Spring, Md., couple did what they always do. They embarked on research. How old should this new cat be? Male or female? How should the introductions be conducted? What might be the best way to ensure a happy cat merger?
When they'd accumulated and processed enough information, they contacted the Feline Foundation of Greater Washington to meet some 12-week-old kittens. They intended to get a male, as research had indicated that would probably go smoother. But once they met the litter, an extroverted white female "jumped into my arms, licked me, purred and fell asleep in my arms," Rebecca says.
And that settled that.
Home they went with the petite kitten with the big name — Napoleana. Blade was thrilled. Within four days the two were sleeping together, curled into a tight knot. "She made Blade love her," Rebecca says. Blade groomed the kitten into almost laughable cleanliness and showed her everything a newcomer needed to learn.
Napoleana assumed the position of family comic and adventurer. She'd paw at the shower door when anyone was inside ("I think she thought we were trapped in there and wanted to save us," Rebecca says) and she'd climb to the top of the fake ficus and yell until someone came to help her (up being the only direction she'd mastered).
Blade no longer licked herself; she was too busy, too content to be bothered with such silliness.
It was all going more wonderfully than the couple had dared hope.
One evening not quite four weeks after Napoleana arrived, Gary brought home a bouquet of his wife's favorite flowers — tiger lilies. A gesture noteworthy only for its sweetness, Rebecca thought.
A couple of mornings later, Gary made an appointment for Napoleana's routine checkup and mentioned that the kitten had thrown up. Probably her first hairball, the vet's office said. Call back if it continues.
The next day she'd vomited again and wasn't feeling well, so they took her directly to the vet.
There was no urine in her bladder, they were told, and there were issues with her kidneys. Blood was taken for testing.
Acute renal failure because of toxicity was the pronouncement. It was at that point, when discussing possible causes, that the couple came to learn that lilies, many varieties of lilies, are poisonous to cats.
The damage was profound and irreversible. And really, because of her size, they were told, within minutes or hours of nibbling, nothing could have saved her (though some adult cats can recover with fast vet intervention).
Napoleana, the sweet kitty who in just four weeks had brought joy to a home and a renewed sense of well-being to an aging cat, was gone.
Blade searched and searched for her when the couple returned from the vet that awful day, then the cat went to her bed and stayed there for a week. "She's starting to do better now," Rebecca says, but she's over-licking her fur again.
The couple still struggle. "You can't even imagine how awful my husband felt, still feels," says Rebecca, who "can't even look at lilies the grocery store." Her lifelong favorite flower now brings only pain.
Another kitten may be brought home at some point, but not yet. "I'm not emotionally ready yet. Maybe later," she says.
"We're people who research everything to death," and she's mystified how in all their reading, all their years of cat ownership, all their annual trips to the vet, they never knew about the lethalness of lilies.
They're not alone in that. Just ask any vet. Ask any cat owner, for that matter.
And, if you happen to be among the unknowing, you need to understand petals, stems or leaves of Easter lilies, stargazer lilies, lots of lilies, can kill cats. Find the whole list of toxic plants on the ASPCA's poison control site.
Today Rebecca is channeling her grief into trying to reduce the number of times the same awful fate befalls others. She made a poster about Napoleana that her vet has posted, and she'll hit other vets' offices and grocery stores. She has posted a plea on the Care2 petition site for the creation of a National Lilies Kill Kittens Awareness Day.
She has nothing against people selling and buying lilies, of course. She just wants cat owners to know the risk. "They have hang tags warning about dangers associated with mini-blinds," she says. "You'd think they could do the same with flower arrangements."