How they play

 The COVID kittens aren't always Shittens.

So about those kittens

 This is kind of long so bear with me.

The first reason we got kittens was 100% me. I’ve seen a lot of pets on the various rescue sites whose owners died or had to move into assisted living and couldn’t keep their pets anymore. Their pictures just crush my soul, those animals are stressed and depressed and scared. When I think about my own life, I know that I always want to have kitties in my home. In my ideal state, my kitties would die like a week before I do or before I have to move into assisted living. But life isn’t always like that. Wally and Eddie are 13, so if I wait until they live out their full life span and assuming they live as long as Chloe did, I’ll be 67 when we’d be looking for another pair of cats. Then if those kitties live 20 years, well I don’t like the odds of them predeceasing me.

I know that it can be hard to bring just one cat into a home with resident cats, especially when they are as high strung and neurotic as Eddie and Wally. So I wanted a pair. That way they would always have each other.

Initially I looked for older cats as they’re both cheaper and in greater need. But as I inquired about them, they had health issues or other requirements that made integrating them into our home look pretty difficult. So I turned to kittens.

Here’s the other reason I wanted more kitties. This pandemic is taking a toll on everyone, me included. So many of the things Kent and I like to do are off the table and I’m feeling flat and apathetic. I’m sure it doesn’t help that I don’t even have the usual escape of running since my foot isn’t fully healed. The kittens are helping with that a lot. They’re absolutely hysterical in their kitten antics, and we’re both laughing a lot more these days. 

It’s still pretty daunting to have four cats. Right now, we keep the girls in the guest bedroom at night. That gives Wally his safe space with us in bed, and honestly it helps us too. After all, they’re kittens and they love to romp and play in the middle of the night. That doesn’t help us get a good night’s sleep. 

We’ve added a third litter box, which is in the guest bedroom too. The girls only use it at night, which makes us laugh. I bet they’d tell us they’re big kitties now and they’ll use the big kitties’ boxes, thank you very much. 

Annie has also had a prolapsed anus which hasn’t fully resolved (in fact, she’s at the vet today because she had a bloody stool last night and the prolapse was back again this morning). That brings back sad memories of Sammie, who only lived for seven more months after we adopted him when he was seven months old (he had feline infectious peritonitis which is always fatal). 

And having someone care for the cats when we do travel has now more than doubled. I booked kennel time for the girls at our vet’s as I’m not yet ready to have all four cats stay home alone with a once a day pet sitter visit. Stevie loves to chew wires, and Wally still intensely dislikes them both, so this seemed the wiser if more expensive path to take. 

Still, I’m super glad we got them. And yes, now I’m 100% a crazy cat lady as I’ve exceeded the formula: N + 1 where N equals the number of humans in the house. We were OK with three, but four? Yup, crazy cat people territory. 

The kittens are here!

 I’ll write more about the whole “why two more cats??” but for now, let me introduce the newest members of our family. 

These girls are two and a half months old, not litter mates but bonded. We picked them up yesterday after they were spayed (which yes, that seems quite young to me too). They’re spending the next couple of weeks in our second bedroom which is their safe room. I present to you the safe room:

Wally and Eddie know something is up, not sure if they realize there are kittens in the house. Of course, both boys hate closed doors, especially Eddie, so we have some hurt feelings. Eddie likes to lie right outside the door and yell at us about that awful closed door. His yelling gets Wally riled up, so then Wally hisses at Eddie. 

Anyway, the foster mom named them after female singers. We liked Stevie’s name (as in Nicks) but I had a Mags before and I don’t like to reuse animal names so Maggie is now Annie (as in Lennox). In this photo, Steve is on the left and Annie is on the right.

Last night, the girls spent the night curled up under the guest bed. I could see their little ears and they took turns approaching me and scampering back. I’m sure they were sore, tired and a little freaked out to be in a strange new place.

This morning was completely different. They both scampered out to greet me, purring loudly and wanting pets (I obliged). They ate a whole can of kitten food between them and both used the litter box properly. Annie is on the left and Stevie is on the right:

I got a short video this morning and then later, both girls were on the cat tree. Annie was on the top (and stayed until I snapped a picture), and Stevie was on the second level but got down too quickly for the photo.