Kittens!

Our 3 year old orange Persian, Lucy, disappeared July 2006, on an evening when we clearly heard the coyotes outside. It really made us sad, because that's an awful way to go (though I hope it was quick), and we really miss her. She made us laugh all the time. She was adopted from the pound when she was 6mths old, and had been an indoor/outdoor cat at her previous home. We tried to keep her in but she was never happy, and was destructive and peed in inappropriate places, so we finally let her out. She loved to be outside and played and chased bugs and stalked birds, and just had a great time. Her personality really came out after she started going outside, and then she was a really fun, happy cat. She had three acres to play on, and it's all fenced so she was in no danger from anything except those rotten coyotes. So I'm glad she really enjoyed what time she had, but I'm sorry she had to go like that.

More pictures of Lucy in My Fish Room

The last several pets we've had were adults we adopted from rescues or the pound. I think adopting a 'second-chance' animal is great, but the best dog I've ever had is Alki, our Eskimo. I don't know if that's because she's an Eskimo, or because we raised her from a puppy so she is perfectly suited to our family ways. So we decided the gaping hole left by the loss of Lucy should be filled with our first ever baby kitten. Since we're going to try and keep the kitten indoors (to avoid giving the coyotes another snack) we bought two sisters together. This way they can help entertain each other and being inside won't seem so boring.

Aug, 26, 2006

We brought home two baby kittens. I had kind of wanted something fluffy like Lucy was. We searched through the ads, asked people we knew, asked the vet, browsed the local rescue kittens on Petfinder, and finally spotted someone on Craigslist selling half-Persian kittens. So we went to check them out. They are 8 weeks old today. Very sweet and playful, and we met their Persian father, a beautiful cream guy. We couldn't meet the mother because she was mad that people were taking away her kittens, and had been sent to a back room. Apparently these folks already had the purebred Persian male, and he wasn't fixed. They adopted a female who was supposed to be fixed, but clearly wasn't because next thing you know she had a whole litter of kittens to deal with. Mom and Dad were both indoor cats, and the family was keeping one of the kittens. I got the feeling they really loved their cats, so I felt great about getting kittens from them. I wouldn't have wanted to support someone just cranking out kittens for profit.

The kittens don't have the pushed in face like Lucy did, which is good because she had a lot of eye and nose problems. But they are just a little fluffy, which is great. They are just about identical.

Unfortunately the lady called me a couple hours after we got home, and she had sent home the wrong kitten, she'd given us the little boy she wanted to keep! So I checked out their equipment and discovered the one on the right in the picture above was the boy, so back home he went! I brought home a girl in his place, so now we had the two girls I wanted.

Play hard, sleep hard. These two girls are busy busy, then fall over and go to sleep for a couple hours. At first it seemed one was much braver, and one was more meek. Although I wanted to give them girly names, we began calling the brave one "Mighty" and the meek one "Mouse". Now that they are settled in, they are both playful and outgoing and rambunctious, and if anything I think Mighty likes to be held and petted even more than Mouse. But the names seem to have stuck now, so they just have to live with them. Not like names matter, cat's don't come when you call them anyway!

Getting two was the way to go, they are playing together all the time, which gives the poor dogs a break! Speaking of the dogs, we have two, Alki the Eskimo, and Chester the Dalmatian. Both are used to cats, but have never seen kittens! The kittens had never seen dogs! So there was an adjustment period. There was a lot of hissing and spitting and back arching from the kittens at first, and the dogs just wanted to give them a good sniff. Pretty soon the dogs got bored with them, and then we just had to watch out for the kittens getting too curious about the dogs. Mouse in particular seems to like Alki and wants to cuddle up to her, but Alki's not into that, so she grumbles and moves out of reach. Wears her out having to put up with these young'uns!

I was watching TV and Mighty was playing on the couch when she suddenly dropped in for a nap!

August 27, 06

We all survived our first day together! And the kittens are right back at it first thing this morning. Mouse flips around to entertain herself while Mighty gets in an after-breakfast nap.

August 29

I have to go to work all day, but Dave takes pictures of the kittens playing so I can enjoy it when I get home

When they're done playing they sleep in the closet, where we have set up their food and box and a drawer for them to sleep in. They can go in and out of the closet through a little cat-sized hole in the door, but the dogs cannot get in there and steal their food.

You can tell Mighty and Mouse apart because Mouse has a dark/light pattern on her sides, and Mighty is more of a tabby/orange without a defined pattern. In the picture above Mouse is on top. I don't know if it will get easier to tell as we get used to them, but right now we spend a lot of time asking "which one is that?"

Aug 30, 06

Mighty, about to doze off

Shhhhh, Mouse is sleeping...

Sept 2

The kittens have been with us a whole week! I am amazed they have managed to not get lost, hurt, or eaten by the dogs, who they have harassed mercilessly.

Mouse celebrates by taking on a sandal in paw-to-paw combat!

Just when it looks like the shoe has won, a new target enters the picture

Back to the shoe, all wild-eyes!

Then Mighty wakes up and comes to join the fun

A sister is even more fun to play with than shoes!

Whew, enough of that, time for another nap!

Sept 3

Dave and Mighty catch a cat-nap

Enough with the sandals already, you two!

And when Mighty wore out, Mouse moved on to taunting animals much bigger than herself, like Chester and his always wagging tail, which she is holding down with her paw.

Oh, yeah, Mouse, that's the look that lets you get away with anything. Good job!

The things Chester has to put up with, if only he could tell you...

Eventually Mouse wears out too.

More Kittens!! Click here!

stefrobrts@stephanies-mustang.com