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out. My wife, Erika opened the screen door and Rocky darted to the center of our backyard
lawn and began circling an object. Erika went to see what Rocky was so curious about. The
object was a tiny gray kitten perhaps only a few weeks old. She carefully picked up the kitten
and Rocky became concerned. His facial expression said, "you be careful with that little
guy."

Erika fastened the leash to Rocky's collar and set out to find where the kitten was missing
from. She canvased a two block radius, going door to door, asking if anyone was missing a
kitten. Nobody was missing a kitten (or at least didn't admit to losing one).

Erika returned home and called me at work to tell me about the surprise. I told her that we
really didn't need another cat, so we should find the kitten a good home.

When I got home from work, Erika showed me the new kitten. I instantly developed a soft
spot for the little guy. He had dark gray tiger stripes, big blue eyes, a white bib on his chest,
and white socks on his paws. "We can't give him away," I said as the kitten looked at me
with those big blue eyes.

Erika and I fashioned up a cardboard box with a thick bath towel set in the bottom, litter in a
Tupperware dish (for a make-shift litterbox), and a water bowl. This cardboard box served as
crib for the kitten at night, so he wouldn't get into mischief.

"What should we name the kitten," Erika asked. How about Lucky, but translated into Italian?
We looked up the translation on the Internet: Fortunato. This was the perfect name for the
kitten because he really was lucky he came to our house. Otherwise, he could have been
attacked by a larger animal, ran over by a car, starved to death, or any number of hazzardous
situations.