The day our lives changed started out like every other day begins before everything flips upside down on its head.
My husband went to work, in Ohio.
And I did my shows here in Wisconsin.
Yes, you read that correctly. After three years of marriage, we still don’t live together. But that’s another story for another day.
This day, however, seemed like just an ordinary one. Which is how they usually always are when you think your lives are heading in one direction and then the universe has other plans.
I will always remember it well. I was on the phone that afternoon working on some endorsement deals for my “In the Kitchen with Laura McKenna” segment when I got a phone call from my husband, Alex.
Like the good wife that I am, I sent him to voicemail. Business is business, ya know?
Before you judge, keep in mind- we now have two more very hungry little mouths to feed but I did not know that yet at that point in the day. Ironically, that endorsement deal matters now more than ever.
So as it rang and I saw that it was Alex, I pushed “send to voicemail” on my phone and kept on wheeling and dealing. I knew I’d call him back after I was done. He said he was going home to mow the lawn so I hadn’t really been expecting his call right then.
But then came a text message that read: “I’ve got an emergency”
Ok, now he had my attention. After all, he is not the alarmist in this marriage. He’s the steady rock with everything in its place at all times and every regimented scheduled plan followed to a tee.
I, on the other hand as you know, am usually organized chaos. (Which honestly might make us more compatible living apart than living together but again- that’s another story for another day).
So I was honest with the great gal on the other end of the phone: “I’m really sorry but I have to let you go. My husband is having an emergency and…well, he just doesn’t have emergencies. So I better take this.”
She laughed because she probably thought I was joking. I laughed, nervously, because I definitely was not joking. At the same time as I was hanging up, I was starting to feel a little sick in the pit of my stomach. The last time Alex had an emergency was two years ago when he called me at 5am from the hospital emergency room as he was getting his leg stitched up. A leg press machine at the gym had malfunctioned and came down and gashed his knee wide open.
Bone was exposed, blood was everywhere, the gym clerk at the front desk passed out from the site of all the gore and I got the call from Alex and this is what he said, calm as the day is long:
“First, can you sit down for me? I need you to know that everything is ok. I am fine. Well, I am not fine but I am going to be fine. I had a little accident at the gym and the guy at the desk there was not doing ok so I had to call my own ambulance. I hope he’s ok. Poor guy, I think he’s like you and can’t deal with the site of blood and well, there was a lot of it. But I got the ambulance to come and just held my knee together till I could get here to the hospital but now the doctor is coming back in just a minute to stitch it. I just wanted to call you and to let you know that everything is ok but I might not be able to go to work today.”
He was telling me all this with literally not an ounce of panic in his voice. Meanwhile, even thinking about it again makes me get all woozy.
So when I say that this man does not have emergencies, that’s exactly what I mean. He. Does. Not. Have. Emergencies.
My mind was racing in about a million directions as I started to dial him back….
Thoughts were coming rapid fire:
He’s dead. Well, probably not. Dead people can’t call and they definitely can’t text their wife that they are having an emergency.
Maybe the mower ran him over. It’s an electric push mower so I don’t think that might even be possible but my mind goes wild in emergency situations so I don’t know….
And just then another text popped through as I was dialing. A picture, this time.
My husband went to work, in Ohio.
And I did my shows here in Wisconsin.
Yes, you read that correctly. After three years of marriage, we still don’t live together. But that’s another story for another day.
This day, however, seemed like just an ordinary one. Which is how they usually always are when you think your lives are heading in one direction and then the universe has other plans.
I will always remember it well. I was on the phone that afternoon working on some endorsement deals for my “In the Kitchen with Laura McKenna” segment when I got a phone call from my husband, Alex.
Like the good wife that I am, I sent him to voicemail. Business is business, ya know?
Before you judge, keep in mind- we now have two more very hungry little mouths to feed but I did not know that yet at that point in the day. Ironically, that endorsement deal matters now more than ever.
So as it rang and I saw that it was Alex, I pushed “send to voicemail” on my phone and kept on wheeling and dealing. I knew I’d call him back after I was done. He said he was going home to mow the lawn so I hadn’t really been expecting his call right then.
But then came a text message that read: “I’ve got an emergency”
Ok, now he had my attention. After all, he is not the alarmist in this marriage. He’s the steady rock with everything in its place at all times and every regimented scheduled plan followed to a tee.
I, on the other hand as you know, am usually organized chaos. (Which honestly might make us more compatible living apart than living together but again- that’s another story for another day).
So I was honest with the great gal on the other end of the phone: “I’m really sorry but I have to let you go. My husband is having an emergency and…well, he just doesn’t have emergencies. So I better take this.”
She laughed because she probably thought I was joking. I laughed, nervously, because I definitely was not joking. At the same time as I was hanging up, I was starting to feel a little sick in the pit of my stomach. The last time Alex had an emergency was two years ago when he called me at 5am from the hospital emergency room as he was getting his leg stitched up. A leg press machine at the gym had malfunctioned and came down and gashed his knee wide open.
Bone was exposed, blood was everywhere, the gym clerk at the front desk passed out from the site of all the gore and I got the call from Alex and this is what he said, calm as the day is long:
“First, can you sit down for me? I need you to know that everything is ok. I am fine. Well, I am not fine but I am going to be fine. I had a little accident at the gym and the guy at the desk there was not doing ok so I had to call my own ambulance. I hope he’s ok. Poor guy, I think he’s like you and can’t deal with the site of blood and well, there was a lot of it. But I got the ambulance to come and just held my knee together till I could get here to the hospital but now the doctor is coming back in just a minute to stitch it. I just wanted to call you and to let you know that everything is ok but I might not be able to go to work today.”
He was telling me all this with literally not an ounce of panic in his voice. Meanwhile, even thinking about it again makes me get all woozy.
So when I say that this man does not have emergencies, that’s exactly what I mean. He. Does. Not. Have. Emergencies.
My mind was racing in about a million directions as I started to dial him back….
Thoughts were coming rapid fire:
He’s dead. Well, probably not. Dead people can’t call and they definitely can’t text their wife that they are having an emergency.
Maybe the mower ran him over. It’s an electric push mower so I don’t think that might even be possible but my mind goes wild in emergency situations so I don’t know….
And just then another text popped through as I was dialing. A picture, this time.
Wait, what? I tried to enlarge the picture just as he answered in sheer panic husband mode.
“I’ve got an emergency here.” He blurted that out before I could even make sense of what I was seeing in the picture.
He continued in a frenzy: “I was mowing and I thought I heard a little cry but how could I over the mower, you know?!?! I don’t know. So I stopped and I came around the side of the house and there was…”
I cut him off, finally understanding what I was seeing in the picture: “A kitten?”
“No, Laura. No! Not just a kitten. Not just one kitten. There are four kittens! This cannot be happening!!”
By this point he was getting louder and more panicked as he kept talking.
“I saw the one and then another hopped out. And I don’t know, they just kept coming. Remember that video where the guy saved the kittens on the side of the road and then hundreds of kittens just kept coming out and he had to save them all? No, this cannot be happening. I cannot have all these kittens. We cannot keep all these kittens. What am I going to do? I can’t just leave them here. They just came over to me and so I scooped them up and put them on the porch because I don’t want anything to happen to them. WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?”
All the while he is starting to freak out more and more, I slowly am feeling normal again. Kittens I can deal with (gladly!), it’s just blood and guts that I cannot. So as long as he isn’t bleeding out or having a medical emergency, we can handle kittens. (Says the person not currently in the same state dealing with the kitten ambush).
So we narrowed it down that there must be a Mama Cat around there somewhere and maybe she had the kittens under his deck? Maybe she is coming back for them? Hopefully, right? Maybe putting them back close to where he found them was the best thing to do and let their Mama Cat do her mama cat thing until we can take them to a shelter because we already have enough pets between our two separate households. He was starting to calm down as we talked our way through this.
And like the good wife that I am, I requested another picture. Because, you know. I gotta see these kittens! And oh my god, they were so cute.
“I’ve got an emergency here.” He blurted that out before I could even make sense of what I was seeing in the picture.
He continued in a frenzy: “I was mowing and I thought I heard a little cry but how could I over the mower, you know?!?! I don’t know. So I stopped and I came around the side of the house and there was…”
I cut him off, finally understanding what I was seeing in the picture: “A kitten?”
“No, Laura. No! Not just a kitten. Not just one kitten. There are four kittens! This cannot be happening!!”
By this point he was getting louder and more panicked as he kept talking.
“I saw the one and then another hopped out. And I don’t know, they just kept coming. Remember that video where the guy saved the kittens on the side of the road and then hundreds of kittens just kept coming out and he had to save them all? No, this cannot be happening. I cannot have all these kittens. We cannot keep all these kittens. What am I going to do? I can’t just leave them here. They just came over to me and so I scooped them up and put them on the porch because I don’t want anything to happen to them. WHAT AM I GOING TO DO?”
All the while he is starting to freak out more and more, I slowly am feeling normal again. Kittens I can deal with (gladly!), it’s just blood and guts that I cannot. So as long as he isn’t bleeding out or having a medical emergency, we can handle kittens. (Says the person not currently in the same state dealing with the kitten ambush).
So we narrowed it down that there must be a Mama Cat around there somewhere and maybe she had the kittens under his deck? Maybe she is coming back for them? Hopefully, right? Maybe putting them back close to where he found them was the best thing to do and let their Mama Cat do her mama cat thing until we can take them to a shelter because we already have enough pets between our two separate households. He was starting to calm down as we talked our way through this.
And like the good wife that I am, I requested another picture. Because, you know. I gotta see these kittens! And oh my god, they were so cute.
But it was after that picture was texted that Alex noticed that one of the other kittens had some sort of eye infection. All goopy and in need of treatment. Even if Mama Cat came back, she obviously can’t help with that.
So Alex was back in emergency mode worried that this little kitten could go blind. Also, did you ever notice that when things like this happen, it’s never during normal business hours where he could have called his own vet and maybe got squeezed in for a quick appointment? Oh no, everything is closed at this time of the day (vets, humane societies, all the places that could logically be of some assistance in a sick kitten emergency).
So what’s a guy to do with a sweet little sick kitten that he just met? Take it to the emergency vet, of course!
If you’ve never made a trip to an emergency vet, I hope it stays that way. They exist for that sole reason: Emergencies. And likewise, they are priced accordingly. But as any lover of pets feels in emergency situations with their furbabies, you will do anything to save them.
Even apparently for one you just met. Although in our family, this would not be the first time we got suckered into a stray cat emergency.
(Come back and read about that here: The "Tail" of One Lucky Kitty)
So after a quick husband and wife huddle, a game plan was made. He called the emergency vet and they said to bring the kitten in. We decided it would be best to put the remaining three kittens back near the deck where he found them for Mama Cat (hopefully) and she’ll just have to know we had to take her other baby for treatment. We’d bring it back soon.
But lord if the emergency didn’t get more emergent because lo and behold, as he was placing them back, he found two more! Oh my god, six kittens!!! And one more looked a little sickly in the eyes.
“I can’t leave this one behind,” he said and without any other thought, scooped that one into the carrier, too. Then high-tailed it (no pun intended) to the emergency vet.
You have to understand something else about my husband- this is the kind of guy who gets fully dressed in khakis and a dress shirt, tucked in, just to work from home. So the fact that he’d be heading anywhere in his mowing clothes, with a yard half cut, and the mower just stopped and sitting out in the front yard – all willy nilly- is enough to tell you that he was having an emergency!
But these babies mattered more than mowed lawns or clean clothes. They weren’t doing well.
The vets greeted him and the two kittens immediately upon arrival and asked the normal triage questions, including how long had these eye problems been going on?
“Well,” I heard Alex say as I stayed on speaker phone to hear what the docs recommended, “I’ve only known them for about an hour.”
Immediately he was everyone’s favorite hero. The caring guy, bringing two little sick orphan twins into the Emergency Vet. Swoon….
The exam revealed we had a boy and a girl on our hands. “Stray Female” and “Stray Male” they wrote on the chart. The kittens had eye infections and a bit of an upper respiratory issue but their lungs sounded clear. Alex was sent home with antibiotic cream for their eyes. That needed administered twice daily. They also needed bottle fed because they couldn’t be returned to Mama Cat right away (since she would likely lick the cream off their faces). The vets got Alex all crash-coursed in bottle feeding kittens. That needed done every 2 hours. They also explained how the kittens would need their little butts massaged so they knew to poop and pee after nursing.
So my husband walked out of that vet feeling like he was being sent home with newborn twins. Scared to death.
We both have always been pet lovers. He’s had both dogs and cats and you know, I’m a cat lover from the way back. But neither of us are at all experienced with kittens. Especially kittens that still needed bottle fed.
But here he was- a new single Dad of twins with a wife on the phone miles away.
And I couldn’t be prouder of him. He’s been getting no sleep. He’s completely out of his regimented routine. Bottle feeding and rubbing kitten butts. Putting antibiotic cream into tiny little eyes. Worried sick that he’s doing something wrong.
And these babies LOVE him. Love probably isn’t even the right word for it. They adore him. He puts me on facetime so they’ll know my voice and we can all be part of medicine and mealtime. And I just watch their little sweet faces look up at him with wonder and affection. It’s really a beautiful thing.
“Well,” I heard Alex say as I stayed on speaker phone to hear what the docs recommended, “I’ve only known them for about an hour.”
Immediately he was everyone’s favorite hero. The caring guy, bringing two little sick orphan twins into the Emergency Vet. Swoon….
The exam revealed we had a boy and a girl on our hands. “Stray Female” and “Stray Male” they wrote on the chart. The kittens had eye infections and a bit of an upper respiratory issue but their lungs sounded clear. Alex was sent home with antibiotic cream for their eyes. That needed administered twice daily. They also needed bottle fed because they couldn’t be returned to Mama Cat right away (since she would likely lick the cream off their faces). The vets got Alex all crash-coursed in bottle feeding kittens. That needed done every 2 hours. They also explained how the kittens would need their little butts massaged so they knew to poop and pee after nursing.
So my husband walked out of that vet feeling like he was being sent home with newborn twins. Scared to death.
We both have always been pet lovers. He’s had both dogs and cats and you know, I’m a cat lover from the way back. But neither of us are at all experienced with kittens. Especially kittens that still needed bottle fed.
But here he was- a new single Dad of twins with a wife on the phone miles away.
And I couldn’t be prouder of him. He’s been getting no sleep. He’s completely out of his regimented routine. Bottle feeding and rubbing kitten butts. Putting antibiotic cream into tiny little eyes. Worried sick that he’s doing something wrong.
And these babies LOVE him. Love probably isn’t even the right word for it. They adore him. He puts me on facetime so they’ll know my voice and we can all be part of medicine and mealtime. And I just watch their little sweet faces look up at him with wonder and affection. It’s really a beautiful thing.
Mama Cat came by later that first evening when he returned. Turns out she was a stray he had been seeing around the last few months. He noticed her belly looked like she recently had babies. Alex was feeding her two kittens on his screened in porch and she just sat at the edge of the deck and watched. He told her he needed to keep them for a little while until they got better. And Alex said it was almost like she understood. She hasn’t been back to visit since so she must know her babies are in good hands.
Alex also hasn’t seen the other kittens so Mama Cat either has them tucked away further under the deck or maybe she’s moved them. Maybe she even sent them all out to meet Alex, knowing full well the kind of guy he is. The kind of guy that would drop everything to save them. Cats are smart that way. We think we pick them, but I am fully convinced after all these years that they really do find us.
And so he’s moved them now into the bathroom for safe-keeping because he didn’t want them getting cold or rained on or scared.
Alex’s dog lays by the bathroom door, almost guarding them. He hasn’t barked once. It’s like he knows, too. It’s everyone’s mission to protect these kittens.
Alex’s indoor cat knows something is going on but she doesn’t seem too worked up about having more felines around.
I know Alex has fallen hard for those two little balls of fluff and there is no way he could ever return them to the wild. The “Stray Female” wasn’t afraid of him from Day 1. At first, the “Stray Male” hid behind his sister and trembled and now he purrs and bounds over to Alex as soon as he opens the bathroom door.
They both love him so much. We all do. He’s being a really great Dad to these kittens. Their favorite thing to do after they get done eating their kitten formula is crawl up on him and take a little snooze, one on each arm. It’s the cutest darn thing.
Alex also hasn’t seen the other kittens so Mama Cat either has them tucked away further under the deck or maybe she’s moved them. Maybe she even sent them all out to meet Alex, knowing full well the kind of guy he is. The kind of guy that would drop everything to save them. Cats are smart that way. We think we pick them, but I am fully convinced after all these years that they really do find us.
And so he’s moved them now into the bathroom for safe-keeping because he didn’t want them getting cold or rained on or scared.
Alex’s dog lays by the bathroom door, almost guarding them. He hasn’t barked once. It’s like he knows, too. It’s everyone’s mission to protect these kittens.
Alex’s indoor cat knows something is going on but she doesn’t seem too worked up about having more felines around.
I know Alex has fallen hard for those two little balls of fluff and there is no way he could ever return them to the wild. The “Stray Female” wasn’t afraid of him from Day 1. At first, the “Stray Male” hid behind his sister and trembled and now he purrs and bounds over to Alex as soon as he opens the bathroom door.
They both love him so much. We all do. He’s being a really great Dad to these kittens. Their favorite thing to do after they get done eating their kitten formula is crawl up on him and take a little snooze, one on each arm. It’s the cutest darn thing.
Each day their eyes are looking better and better.
So I’m excited to introduce you to our new little twins: Ruthie and Charlie.
The best kind of emergency we didn’t know we needed.
So I’m excited to introduce you to our new little twins: Ruthie and Charlie.
The best kind of emergency we didn’t know we needed.
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Copyright 2026 Laura McKenna. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without express written consent.
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