New Life

Even before Ptah became ill, we had been wondering if we shouldn't get some sort of a playmate for Serif, our youngest cat, who is now probably 2.5 years old. She is incredibly smart and curious, and has kept herself mostly self-entertained since she has been with us. However, watching her endlessly chase her own tale, or having to wait until one of us was available to play chase made us feel sort of bad. Ptah and Shu seemed to want little to do with her, other than an occasional swat and hiss to make sure Serif knew there was not going to be any kitten excitement around them! Well, Bruce wasn't going to let me get a hamster (probably for the best anyhow!) so around Christmas time we visited the local Humane Society. I have always steered clear of the shelters, both because I haven't thought I could handle seeing all the homeless animals without taking them all home, and because I always feared the facility would end up being inhumane and terrifying instead of humane and comforting for all the creatures living there... I was very positively surprised.

Before even going there, we had found this little face on the website:

Edward - probably all of 5 weeks old

How could we NOT bring him home?!

There was another sweet gray boy, "Lil' Blue", but it turned out he needed a "special needs"-able home due to a urinary tract/ bladder issues.... He was ADORABLE. (If you read the last entry, you can see why I was prepared to jump on board again! But - a veterinarian's assistant had already decided to adopt Lil'Blue by the time I went back to the shelter the second time. Probably best that way...) However, Lil' Blue had a lil' sister, Heidi!

After spending more than 3 hours in the room with the kittens, I was ready to bring home four of them. For some reason, Bruce didn't think that was a good idea. So I had to choose. It was heart wrenching! But in the end, on New Year's Eve, it was Edward and Heidi that entered our lives. For the first several years when we were married, we had this silly tradition of watching "When Harry Met Sally" on New Year's , right around midnight (big partiers, I know!). We were tempted to name these two after the movie, given their arrival date. We had also thought about Einie Mienie and Meinie Mo since it was so hard to pick them among all the other ones. Then we thought about Neo and Trinity from The Matrix. Then Poomba and Timon from The Lion King. Then Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Then Cow and Boy (Cow, Boy, Montana - get it?). I'm sure there are others I am forgetting. Right now we seem to be back to Einie and Mo though... I'm sure eventually they'll tell us who they are.

One cold day when our furnace was not working...

I did not think our house was short on laughter and joy - but it has exponentially increased since New Years Eve! They are hysterical!

I wish I had baby pictures of Ptah readily available - you would not believe the resemblance.

This dynamic duo doesn't seem to mind the other adult kitties (who try to exert their seniority) one bit!

It was definitely a good choice to get two kittens. (I have to remind myself of this at 2 AM and again at 4 AM...) They entered our house bravely and with curiosity, partly because they felt so comfortable around each other. Even if the other two are hissing at them (which they only did for the first few days) they could play with each other or gang up on one of the others! It has been incredibly therapeutic to come home to these two - I feel as though I am learning about life all over again, through their little paws, eyes, whiskers, and noses.

So here they all are:

"nameless 1"

"Nameless 2"

Serif

Shu