New Babies!

Kittens that is, two of them! It's been over a year since Bogart up and decided to live with a new family and I decided that I missed having something sweet and soft and fuzzy to pet. And, since it's been a bit crazy around here I also thought a little "pet therapy" would be nice and so Travis and I headed over to the local animal shelter to see what we could find to bring home. Turns out, our shelter overfloweth with kittens. There must have been at least 50 of them there and they have so many they're offering get 2 for the price of 1 adoption fee. Which, is a cat lover's dream of course. So, there I sat in kitten heaven for several hours, (because I can't help it, I am a crazy cat lady, and I accept that), trying to decide which two babies should come home. There were all cute and I loved all of them, but in the end it was these two little boys who stole my heart with their sweet dispositions.

Aren't they cute? And actually, though I didn't know it at the time, they're brothers too! They're both a Siamese mix. It was pretty funny though, I took Brianna with me to help choose our new babies and she's as bad as I am, loved them all. She would pick one kitten up and say, "This one! Can we take this one home, can we Mom?" Then a few minutes later she'd have a new cat in her arms, "Mom, I like this one. It's the best one. Let's pick this one!" I think she had picked every kitten at least once before I finally decided she would be happy no matter what and I picked two I thought had the nicest personalities.

Of course, Bree was thrilled, she's missed Bogart terribly and has been after us to get a new pet for awhile. So with two kittens she's just been in heaven. Only problem being that she loves them so much she pretty much refuses to put them down and feels she has to be holding one or the other of them all the time, she lugs the poor things around like stuffed animals. We're working on the proper care and handling of small animals. :) They actually like her pretty well though and snuggle up with her quite often.

And really Bree handles them pretty well for the most part. Noah however is another story. For some reason every time he spies a kitten he walks up to it and slaps it. Don't know what that's about but he and I have had much discussion about being gentle. Not sure if it's sinking in though, while he does seem to be slapping them less as the days go by I have to watch him now since he grabs fistfuls of fur and skin and I have to come to the rescue. Turns out I chose well though, since I found out these boys were foster parented in a house with a 3 year old. So, they're used to getting a lot of childlike attention and they handle it beautifully with much patience and resignation to their fate.

And it's not all manhandling for the new babies. Today Noah got a hold of a kitty toy, a string hooked to the end of a wand, and was waving it all around. Naturally, this made one of the kitties pounce all over and made Noah crack up every time he did. Actually Noah seems to have a soft spot for the kittens. I had to say "NO!" to one of them the other day for hopping up next to Noah's high chair and trying to eat food off his tray, which made Noah burst into tears and sob for several minutes. Not sure if he thought I was yelling at him or he just is a sensitive little guy.

Yep, I think overall it's working out wonderfully. Now if I could just name them! They've lived here for almost a week now and I remain undecided in the naming department. Naming of pets is an important thing for me, I don't just do it willy nilly. No, it has to be something a little bit special, the name must amuse me somehow (like when I found it fun and ironic to name a fish "Fluffy"), and seem fitting, and be meaningful too. I suggested Polka Dots as a prospective name to Brianna, since she likes to pretend she's a cat named Polka Dots quite often and therefore it meets the amusing and meaningful name requirements, but her response was, "No Mom, that's MY cat name, we can't name another cat that!" (Silly me!) Then, since my last cat was named Bogart I have toyed with the idea of naming the boys "Bo" and "Garth" respectively since it makes me smirk at my own silliness. But then, not sure if giving them similar names to the cat who decided to abandon me is a good thing or not. And, since they're brothers and one is black and the other mostly white I toyed around with doing something "theme-y" like two characters from a show or something. But, so far, nothing seems just perfect so for now they remain nameless. (Anybody got any brilliant cat name suggestions? Cat naming contest is now open!)

I'll let you know when the official names fall into place. But, whatever their names will be, I'm sure you'll hear more about them. Mixing cats and kids makes for some good anecdotes!