We're Officially Outnumbered
Dec. 23rd, 2009 09:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jaunthieChristmas came a few days early for M this year.
No, you're not seeing double. There are in fact two of them.
This is Thing 1, aka Boy-Thing, aka He-Thing. No, we haven't figured out his name yet.
This is Thing 2, aka Girl-Thing, aka She-Thing. No, we haven't figured out her name yet either.
They're three months old, more or less, and as you can see, a brother-and-sister pair. Both of them came with names, but we're not keeping them (the names, that is). Among other reasons, neither![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fisherbear or I believe in kitty names that contain hisses in them, and both of their given names contained hisses. So we're currently trying to figure out their names. We'll keep you posted.
So far M has reacted remarkably well to the new arrivals.
His tail puffed out just a little bit when I first put the carrier down. And that was all. He's been absolutely and unexpectedly wonderful about his new toys. He's followed them around, offered to sniff noses, attempted to play a little with Thing 1, put up remarkably well with Thing 2's occasional hisses, and has not raised a single paw in anger to either of them, even when Thing 2 was attempting to horn in on his wet food. He's a little jealous of them when they're asleep, particularly if they're sleeping in a lap, but he clearly finds them endlessly fascinating when they're awake and moving. We'll keep our fingers crossed, but so far, so good.
So why two? I can hear you asking the question. Quite frankly I'm a bit astonished myself, because it was certainly not our intention.fisherbear and I just wanted to bring home a friend for M. We suspected that M would do best with a kitten or a youngling, not an adult, both because of his own energy level (he still plays like a kitten) and because he'd find an immature cat much less threatening than an adult. We were hoping to find a teenager, somewhere in the four-to-nine month range, but we were open to the idea of a kitten as long as it wasn't too small. And after living with the amount of hair and hairballs J's coat produced, we were definitely inclined towards shorthairs, if possible.
Well, you know what they say about the best-laid plans. Neither no-kill shelter we looked at had much of anything in the way of cats between three months and a year old. We looked at two very nice year-olds at the Greenwood shelter, but neither one was quite right. And the main shelter, like the smaller Greenwood branch, had mostly adults, and no teenagers available for adoption at all.
But they did have one litter of kittens. A litter who had been at the shelter and available for adoption for over a month already, looking for homes. Given that kittens are nothing but a concentrated puddle of cuteness - these included - we could only imagine that their fuzzy nature (they were not shorthairs) was putting people off. One of them was adopted right before we got there, and another had found a home, but there were several left, still looking. Among them were two with their paws wrapped around each other, alternately washing each other's faces and one trying to make toys out of the other's ears. We decided to take the two to the playroom, to evaluate and see if either one might be a good match for M.
Watching them in the room, it soon became clear that they both had characteristics that would suit well with M. The girl kitten was full of spunk and fun and play, and clearly feared nothing. The boy kitten was more thoughtful, but had an unfailingly sunny nature, and was extremely tolerant of anything his sister (or these strange humans) chose to dish out. Either one would probably work just fine.
But they were also clearly strongly bonded to each other, above and beyond their littermates. And fisherbear slightly preferred the girl, while I slightly preferred the boy. As we sat there talking, trying to figure out which of the two might work out better, we realized that we'd probably be in the same boat seven or eight years down the line, trying to find a new kitty to keep our current kitty company after M passed on...
...or we could find room in our hearts and home to adopt them both.
I'm still not 100% certain we made the right decision. I worry that M will find the pair too much for him over the coming days, or feel left out and get dangerously jealous. Even if all that works out, I dread the amount of cat hair we'll be dealing with over the years and trying to live with the sheer biomass of three felines instead of two.
But so far, so good. And they've already got their little claws hooked quite firmly into me. Merry Christmas, indeed.
No, you're not seeing double. There are in fact two of them.
This is Thing 1, aka Boy-Thing, aka He-Thing. No, we haven't figured out his name yet.
This is Thing 2, aka Girl-Thing, aka She-Thing. No, we haven't figured out her name yet either.
They're three months old, more or less, and as you can see, a brother-and-sister pair. Both of them came with names, but we're not keeping them (the names, that is). Among other reasons, neither
fisherbear or I believe in kitty names that contain hisses in them, and both of their given names contained hisses. So we're currently trying to figure out their names. We'll keep you posted.So far M has reacted remarkably well to the new arrivals.
His tail puffed out just a little bit when I first put the carrier down. And that was all. He's been absolutely and unexpectedly wonderful about his new toys. He's followed them around, offered to sniff noses, attempted to play a little with Thing 1, put up remarkably well with Thing 2's occasional hisses, and has not raised a single paw in anger to either of them, even when Thing 2 was attempting to horn in on his wet food. He's a little jealous of them when they're asleep, particularly if they're sleeping in a lap, but he clearly finds them endlessly fascinating when they're awake and moving. We'll keep our fingers crossed, but so far, so good.
So why two? I can hear you asking the question. Quite frankly I'm a bit astonished myself, because it was certainly not our intention.
fisherbear and I just wanted to bring home a friend for M. We suspected that M would do best with a kitten or a youngling, not an adult, both because of his own energy level (he still plays like a kitten) and because he'd find an immature cat much less threatening than an adult. We were hoping to find a teenager, somewhere in the four-to-nine month range, but we were open to the idea of a kitten as long as it wasn't too small. And after living with the amount of hair and hairballs J's coat produced, we were definitely inclined towards shorthairs, if possible.Well, you know what they say about the best-laid plans. Neither no-kill shelter we looked at had much of anything in the way of cats between three months and a year old. We looked at two very nice year-olds at the Greenwood shelter, but neither one was quite right. And the main shelter, like the smaller Greenwood branch, had mostly adults, and no teenagers available for adoption at all.
But they did have one litter of kittens. A litter who had been at the shelter and available for adoption for over a month already, looking for homes. Given that kittens are nothing but a concentrated puddle of cuteness - these included - we could only imagine that their fuzzy nature (they were not shorthairs) was putting people off. One of them was adopted right before we got there, and another had found a home, but there were several left, still looking. Among them were two with their paws wrapped around each other, alternately washing each other's faces and one trying to make toys out of the other's ears. We decided to take the two to the playroom, to evaluate and see if either one might be a good match for M.
Watching them in the room, it soon became clear that they both had characteristics that would suit well with M. The girl kitten was full of spunk and fun and play, and clearly feared nothing. The boy kitten was more thoughtful, but had an unfailingly sunny nature, and was extremely tolerant of anything his sister (or these strange humans) chose to dish out. Either one would probably work just fine.
But they were also clearly strongly bonded to each other, above and beyond their littermates. And fisherbear slightly preferred the girl, while I slightly preferred the boy. As we sat there talking, trying to figure out which of the two might work out better, we realized that we'd probably be in the same boat seven or eight years down the line, trying to find a new kitty to keep our current kitty company after M passed on...
...or we could find room in our hearts and home to adopt them both.
I'm still not 100% certain we made the right decision. I worry that M will find the pair too much for him over the coming days, or feel left out and get dangerously jealous. Even if all that works out, I dread the amount of cat hair we'll be dealing with over the years and trying to live with the sheer biomass of three felines instead of two.
But so far, so good. And they've already got their little claws hooked quite firmly into me. Merry Christmas, indeed.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-12-24 06:01 am (UTC)The cuteness is killing me. They're so damn cute!
What's wrong with keeping Thing 1 & Thing 2 as their names? ;)
Thanks again for the prezzies. :D I might even let Evil watch the DVD with me. ;) LOL
no subject
Date: 2009-12-24 08:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-24 03:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-12-24 05:11 pm (UTC)Make sure that M gets one on one M time with both of you, at least for the next several weeks, but all five of you should do fine.
Getting kittens in multiples is really the only way to go. And having done it, I can assure you that, mathematics aside, the biomass produced by three cats isn't really three times the amount that is produced by one.
The _trouble_ produced by three cats, however, is far more than three times the amount produced by one. Especially when two are kittens and the third always will be.
Congratulations!
--J
no subject
Date: 2009-12-24 07:35 pm (UTC)