The Gift That Keeps On...Limiting My Options

I love, love, love my best friend. He may in fact be better than sliced bread. He's also my ex, which is sometimes emotionally challenging and awkward and all sorts of other things that might come up later, but anyway, the point is that just before we broke up he and a friend found some kittens in the parking lot after work. After some heroic moves on his part and a phone call to my parents on mine, I was suddenly the proud and terrified owner of 14 ounce, twelve-week-old Leah, who was encrusted with fleas/flea eggs and looked as much like a fluffy piglet as a baby cat.

She was undernourished, small enough that we thought she was eight weeks old, and afraid of everything. Fast forward through seven months of behavioral, health, and dependance issues, and I've got 5 lb., 10-month-old Leah. She'll never get more than a pound larger and her only hobbies are hiding from strangers, chasing bugs, and vigorously snuggling me.

The problem with this, of course, is that my Top 6 are really my Top 4 and my "What The Hell Will I Do About Leah" 2. I just got home from an overnight trip and was informed that she moped and cried the whole time. If I get in to Pitt, Carlow, or Seton Hill, I can theoretically remain in my parents' house, where we live now. If I go to YSU, I'll be living with two of my favorite people (and a rad fellow I've not met yet), who love Leah and definitely want her there even though they know she's weird. But if I don't.

If I end up at Edinboro or BGSU (which are both wonderful schools with great programs and activities, and I'd be thrilled to be accepted by them), what am I supposed to do with Leah? I can't take her with me and I can't leave her here. I guess I'd have to give her away, but I don't even know how I would handle it, and I'm not the one with the attachment issues.

So...here's hoping my Top 4 like me, I guess?