She should never have asked Jane and me to go kitten-hunting with her.
OSG had her eye already on a foster-home candidate, a tortie girl, out in Otis Orchards, a small town near Spokane…the woman has a feral-cat feeding station which enables her to nab strays and get them altered and, if quite young, to get them forever-homes. She works with Petfinders.
We went out to the Spokane Animal Shelter, however, to check on a second candidate, who proved not to be there: but a beautiful brother-sister act was. They’d been moved in from another shelter, which was over-full, and they were the object of a lot of attention: very young kittens, kind of fog-colored longhaired tabby, probably cream-colored somewhere in their background; and high squee factor, ie—cute. Really cute. You just couldn’t take away one of that brother-sister act: sleeping in each other’s arms, the young lad acting as the pathfinder, sis as the faithful follower…the shelter has a great arrangement (actually donated by Comcast), two kitten/cat rooms, a sound-insulated area behind glass doors, where the cats live in their rather comfy, padded cages, where people can go and interact with the prospects on a nice tiled floor, take them out, hold them, and see how they act. Well, we told OSG she’d better put a hold on these two before we left or they wouldn’t be there another hour. And she did that.
So we went out to Otis Orchards, and yep, there was the tortie girl, about six to eight months, very wary, not trusting of strangers, cars, or life in general…but a sweet cat, mostly just wanting to hide and watch things. And yes, this was the little face that OSG had found on line, the cat that speaks to you through the pictures: and this girl went home with OSG…who’d already phoned OSGuy and asked if three was going to be a problem.
Back to the shelter, where by now the twins were collecting admirers, sound asleep, making a heart-shape of sleeping-kitteh hugs and with an ‘adopted’ sign on the cage. Filling out paperwork took a bit—but these kittehs come altered, with as many of their shots as age permits, and microchipped, so you do need to know which record belongs with whom.
By this time Jane and I were adamant that we were driving. OSG had been up all night with the pic of the tortie girl and just was meeting the wall that arrives when you’ve run on adrenaline all day: now she had her kittehs and we thought she should just sit in the back seat and let us get her home with them. So we got us back to our car, which we’d left in the Swinging Doors parking lot (we’d met for lunch and left from there,) and I drove OSG’s car back to her place and Jane followed us. OSGuy was home by then; and we had a chance to see the kittens come out and explore; but then we thought we should leave the happy family to their own devices and not have the distraction of too-many-people about while they all got acquainted.
So OSG, who started out after one, maybe two cats, now has three. But the twins really only count as one cat: they’re going to stick close to each other; and they’ll convince Miss Tortie that the food is good and the house is home. Kittens are good at that.
How about Cassie and Pollux?
We got Froggie and Macadoo as kittens from my sister-in-law because we went over to her place planning to bring one of the litter home but my spouse and I had each thought up a different name for the putative, single kitty. Out of the litter of four (products of a teen, incestuous relationship: my sister-in-law hadn’t realized her female kitten of a brother and sister pair could come into heat that young), two of the kittens always played and slept together. So, they ended up coming home together.
Since we lost Mackie in August, we added young Mao Tse-Tung (current nickname “Captain Hawkweed” as on the Misadventures of said name, because he eats and carts about the house our bunnies’ hawkweed greens from outside). Froggie got so terribly ill but has been improving superbly on his expensive regimen of multiple antibiotic pills, squirts and sub-cutaneous infusion. If we had lost Froggie, which I suppose is still a possibility, we were considering adding a kitten from a recent litter a colleague at work knows. Three really seems like an awful lot for our <1000 sq. foot house (with the two bunnies already here too), but we are still tempted. As CJ and Jane found, a young kitten really pesters an older cat: is a third kitten a playmate/distraction or double-pester? But to be honest, my major reservation is "what about the litter box?!"
We got a second litter pan to take up the excess—it’s in the basement. Our house has one bathroom. The cats have 2.
Cassie and Pollux could work if you say Cassie is Cassiopeia instead of Castor. I’d thought of Castor and Pollux and a couple of other twins, but those are brother-brother twins instead of brother and sister. I’d also thought up a couple of boy-girl pairs, but didn’t say, because they were boyfriend-girlfriend, which well, just doesn’t work for brother and sister. :-/
No reason Cassie for Cassiopeia wouldn’t go with Pollux, mythological outcomes notwithstanding. As long as Castor has someone to make him happy, and he and Pollux are still talking to each other, it’s all good, right? Well, and Cassiopeia’s former…. Oh nevermind, just pretend it’s Starbuck and Cassiopeia from the classic BSG, hahaha.
Gee, I did get off track, rather….
I think I’ll get some more juice and put a load of clothes on to wash. Possibly ought to go soak my head too. Might improve the thinkum, LOL.
My parents twice ended up with sibling kitties: the first pair was Climber (later Tiger) and Greykin (brother and sister), and the second was Sammy and Harry (two sisters). They all were barn cats and hunters; Sammy and Harry liked to bring their catches in for proper admiration, and occasional indoor releasing.
I vaguely recall reading a book in which a pair of kittens were named Had-I and Just-Known. I’ve never adopted two at a time, or I might have plagiarized those names!