Tag: kittens

Our family has expanded by TWO! Two adorable little calico girls! We brought them home at 9:30 pm Sunday night. It’s now 3:30 pm Wednesday – 66 hours. I have over 160 photos and 11 videos. 🙂 (Hey – I know that’s low but I did have to sleep. 🙂 )

I was astounded at how difficult it was for us to get 2 young female kittens. Why female? Because even though I loved both our male cats, my experience is that they sprayed even after being neutered, and they both fell ill at much younger ages than the females. The first male died from kidney disease at age 5, even though we gave him IV twice a day for several months. The second male ultimately died from diabetes, although we kept him alive for nearly 2.5 years after we’d been told he’d maybe last 6 months.

So even though our prior female cats were all VERY neurotic, with the exception of BC, we decided we wanted females. We wanted them young enough that perhaps BC would not see them as threats. Small enough BC could “take them” if need be to maintain peace in her house. *grin* I was split evenly between thinking that BC would actually be glad of company (remember she was adopted into a household with 3 adult cats and an adult dog) and that she would hate any creature that came because we are HER people.

Our first effort looked as if it would work. It was a rescue operation perhaps 45 minutes away. They had several foster homes with females. Very unfortunately the woman running the program died unexpectedly, throwing that operation into a bit of chaos.

Next we tried several other rescues and local shelters. Everyone had adult cats or young cats older than 3 months or one female or male kittens or…. you get the idea. We heard of 2 litters belonging to friends of friends – all spoken for.

My husband started on Craig’s list. Despite telling the search to stay within 25 miles, he ended up responding to an ad in Westfield. There IS a Westfield in NJ and it IS within 25 miles. But this was Westfield, MAINE. And it was one female and one male. The gentleman offered to drive partway to meet us. Even if we met halfway that was a minimum of 5 hours each way. That is a bit much. We were not quite that desperate.

I was actually a little desperate. I have bought a shih tzu puppy. YAY!!!!! She will be coming home to us the first week in May. I really wanted to bring the kittens in first, get them and BC settled, and then bring in the puppy. I was resolved that we could not bring in kittens and puppy at the same time. So a little desperate.

My husband found 2 female kittens in NY. You know we go into NYC all the time – we just call that either The City or New York. But NY is a BIG state. These 2 perfect kittens – born Jan 6, calico girls – were in Port Jefferson, NY – about 3.5 hours from us. *big in-drawn breath* Oooookay. We WILL drive up on Monday to get the kittens. 7 hours round trip.

Fortunately for us, not so happy for the owners of the mother cat, the husband’s father is in the hospital in NJ. The wife had said that he might be driving down to see his father and he could bring the kittens with him and we could meet him. On Saturday afternoon we got a call that he was indeed coming to NJ – northern NJ, but still, a far cry from driving to Port Jefferson and back. The only problem for us was that we had theater tickets in the City, so we couldn’t meet him until after dinner (allowing for theater then train home then driving north). That was okay with him. WHEW!!!!

We’d been preparing the kitten room (my husband’s office) for days, I’d picked up a new carrier, kitten food, my husband built a cardboard maze for them. We were set! It was Easter on Sunday. Everyone and their sister were on the highways. There was a bigger than usual backup trying to get past where Rt 80, the NJ Turnpike, and Rt 46 all meet, but we made it. Then it was on to Rt 4, which is definitely a road from hell. I’d not driven it in decades – I used to have to go up that way for business. It was worse than I remembered.

In my defense I can say that I was tired (long day of travel to/from the city), lots of traffic on the turnpike, I was hungry (we hadn’t eaten since breakfast), the signage on Rt 4 is terrible – both because many signs are faded and there are dozens of them all on one pole – and it was now dark with all the glare from those blankety-blank LED headlights. Yes, I was stressed.

We pulled up to the address and the husband was sitting there in his car. *laughing* It was like a drug connection. We got out of our car with our carrier and he opened up the back seat of his car. He scooped up one little ball of fur and plopped it in and then the second ball of fur went plop into our carrier. Done! We got back in our car and headed home. With a little spat when the sign was saying turn left and my car GPS was saying right turn. I HATE that. I pulled over and rested a moment, snarling at my husband “NO, I do NOT want you to drive”. What? That isn’t how you rest?

We made it home and upstairs. We filled the water dish and the food dish and the litter box. We opened the carrier and waited. A little head emerged. Kitten!!!! Then another little head! Kitten!!!! The wife had said she thought one of the kittens had allergies because it was sneezing. One of the kittens was WAY smaller than the other – half the size. And sneezing periodically. It was a bit worrisome. I had already scheduled their new kitten vet appointment, but it wasn’t for another 2 weeks. I decided that I’d call in the morning and see if we couldn’t get the little one in sooner.

The kittens explored the room, had no fear, ate food, batted at toys. The little one climbed into my lap, climbed up my arm, nestled onto my shoulder and purred in my ear. ❤ The bigger one was typical kitten – play play play.

BC came up to look. BC and bigger kitten saw each other first. *laughing* Bigger kitten did the kitty arch-back, fluff tail, sideway-stepping maneuver. BC lashed her tail a little. No hissing, no growls, no spitting. BC is easily 3x the size of big kitten, maybe 5x the size of little kitten. 🙂 BC did not look all that concerned. She was lying down on her side, watching. 🙂 This might work after all.

Our son is very concerned for BC. I keep reassuring him. NOTHING has changed for BC except she can’t go into the office. She can look, but there are screens in the way. She slept with us, woke us up in the morning, got fed first, got her litter box cleaned, hung out with me while I did the crossword puzzles, watched TV with my husband, watched the kittens through the screen from the upstairs hall. Trust me – BC is not being neglected. She seems curious, but not angry. If anything she seems cautious, despite being so much larger. *grin* Life has gotten interesting. 🙂