18-year-old girlfriend finds out about her boyfriend’s plans to surprise her with a kitten, but adopts a different kitten instead: ‘She decided to get the other kitten and [didn’t] even apologize to me.’

Well, technically speaking only – if her mother knew about the kitten-gift, it’s not really a surprise anymore. And we have two thoughts about the matter:

1. First and foremost, cats are not gifts. They are an adopted part of the family, an animal-child, a living being you agree to take care of for the rest of their nine lives. Cats are not gifts.
2. Cats are still given as gifts, and a gift can be a surprise. But since this kitten was not a surprise to the girlfriend (and even her mother), was the girlfriend in the wrong to “override” the gift she already knew about? Or was she going to fall in love with the different kitten all along, surprise or not?