Whats It's Been Like To Adopt Kittens Versus Cats

Okay, so I'm going to be posting a LOT about the kittens. I just can't help it! I'll try to keep it to a minimum, but it's kind of like when you have a new baby--you want to share pictures and stories with everyone!

Chick and Duck have been SO MUCH FUN. Like I said, I hadn't had a kitten since Jerry and I first got married 17 years ago. We adopted two kittens (Chandler and Monica) from the animal shelter, and we had a blast with them. They were our entertainment every single day--no TV needed ;)

I don't like talking about Monica (she got sick and we had to have her euthanized when she was only a couple of years old). I feel terrible to this day wondering if there was something I could have done, so just thinking about her makes me upset. But having Chandler and Monica was the best!

Since then, I've only adopted (or taken in) older cats. I wrote about how we acquired elderly Paolo, who was a fantastic cat (he had a bit of dementia toward the end). We don't know how old he was, exactly, but it was estimated in the mid-teens when he passed.

And then when we adopted Monica (the second), I wrote about her as well. We didn't have Monica too long (maybe a year?) before we learned she had liver failure she passed away.

And Chandler. I can't even write about it. It was devastating to my whole family.

Between Paolo, Monica, and Chandler all passing away within a few years, it was rough! We still have Estelle and Phoebe, who are about 10 and 11 years old(?), and we've had them since they were young. Estelle was probably about nine months and Phoebe was probably about 18 months or so when we took them in (as strays).

Anyway, I feel like it was meant to be that we were able to adopt these two kittens. We had originally planned to adopt older cats, but they were not at all happy here, so the rescue took them back (and that is now their "forever home") and asked if we wanted kittens. I felt guilty adopting kittens, because kittens get adopted so quickly while older cats are hard to adopt out.

However, Vickie (who runs Friskie Felines, the rescue) told me that black kittens are hard to adopt out. People want the ones that are colorful. (And secretly, I like those ones better, too!). The kids have been begging for a kitten for as long as I can remember, so I decided to compromise and adopt two kittens--as long as they were black. 

I wanted two males (they generally get along better than females) and Eli really wanted a long-haired cat. It turned out that Friskie Felines had four black kittens--and we were able to get one short-haired male and one long-haired male. It worked out great!

I had completely forgotten what it's like to have kittens. They are all the entertainment you need! I would recommend getting two rather than one, because they love to play with each other and they keep themselves occupied that way. 

Chick and Duck chase each other all over the place, then pounce on each other and wrestle on the ground. It's hilarious to watch them stalk each other before one of them makes the pounce. 

I also had no idea how attached they would get to us! Especially me, because I spend the most time with them. I would really like them to be "the kids' cats", but because it's easiest to keep them in my bedroom and bathroom area for a while, they see me the most. (Mainly because we have their litter box and food in my bathroom). 

In the night, the kittens like to sleep with Jerry and me. Chick, especially, likes to sleep up by our faces. I awoke last night to him putting his nose right in my ear and my nostril--hahaha. He rubs his face all over mine. It's adorable!

Older cats can be super affectionate, too--before we got the kittens, Estelle was pretty much obsessed with me. She followed me everywhere, sat on my lap constantly, and slept next to me. Since we got the kittens, she has basically been ignoring me. She hissed at me the first day or two, but now she will let me pet her and pick her up as long as the other cats aren't around. She still won't relax--she won't sit on my lap or sleep with me. I hope she'll come around soon! I miss her.

Phoebe is pissed at the world. She hisses and growls at all of us now--even when Joey or Estelle walks by, she gets mad. Today, though, she let me pick her up for a minute when the kittens weren't around. She refuses to go near my bedroom, though.

The best parts about having kittens:

*They're super entertaining. They run around like crazy, pouncing, stalking, chasing, jumping, and just acting wild.

*They're SO CUTE that they can get away with anything. And they adore you. 

*They're extremely curious. They love to explore and everything seems new to them. 

*They adapt really well to a new environment. Since they are so young, pretty much everything is new to them. They really aren't as scared as one would think.

*They are super easy to train to use the litter box. Show it to them once or twice, and they'll automatically know what to do. 

Some drawbacks:

*Kittens need to be close to their litter box--if it's across the house, they won't go looking for it. So, even if it's just for a few months, they'll need to stay close to one.

*It's a little nerve-wracking to take care of something so tiny. It's not unusual for them to run right in front of your feet, and I'm surprised I haven't stepped on them. 

*They are SO curious that they literally want to explore everything. You have to be careful! When I flushed the toilet the other day, one of the kitties tried to jump on the toilet seat. So, I learned that we need to put the cover down on the toilet immediately to avoid the cats falling inside.

While I still believe that it's better to adopt an older cat (or cats) from a shelter, I think adopting the black cats from a rescue was a good compromise. They have given my whole family so much JOY right now--the perfect time! This quarantine has been mundane, and the kittens are anything but.

If you're thinking of getting a pet, now is a great time! Please make sure you check your shelters--they have so many fantastic dogs and cats. I don't like to "preach" on my blog, but there are a couple of things I'm super passionate about when it comes to pets:

1) Adopt! Paying for a designer breed takes away a shelter space from pets who need it. Shelter pets (and mutt-dogs!) are great! Joey is literally the best dog I could ever hope for, and he sat at the shelter for three months before we adopted him.

2) Spay or neuter all pets. There are way too many unwanted animals and as much fun as it would be to allow your pet to have a litter, it just adds to the problem.

3) Please please please don't declaw your cats. I grew up in the 80's, and it was totally the norm to declaw cats. When I was in high school, I had the opportunity to shadow a vet for a day. I watched many cat get declawed, and it was awful. I learned that they are actually cutting off the bone at the first knuckle--if you look at your own hands, the "declaw" would be at the knuckle that is just under your fingernail. This can cause all sorts of problems with cats.

My cats are not declawed and they don't scratch my furniture. I buy them scratch pads and posts, which they use frequently. I also trim their nails about once every week or two. I've been doing it for so long that they don't even protest. I can do it while they're napping, and they're totally cool with it. My cats LOVE this scratch pad, and it was worth every penny (Amazon affiliate link). It has nearly 10,000 5-star reviews. (This one is about 18 months old, and it probably needs to be replaced soon)

Anyway, adopting these kittens has been so much fun! I will try not to make my blog entirely about them, but they've been such a prominent part of my life for the last several days, I can't help it. I did get a couple of fun boxes in the mail today, which I'll write about tomorrow. I was SO excited!

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RECIPE: Coffee Freeze (a frozen dessert)

This is very old school--I came across this in a Kraft Food & Family magazine from 2006. It looks just like a chocolate milk shake, but tastes like coffee ice cream--it's delicious! (I used to make it with skim milk and fat-free/sugar-free vanilla pudding, and it worked very well)

I imagine if you don't like coffee, you could substitute chocolate syrup or peanut butter, or something creative, although it would change the calories. (Nutrition info is at the bottom of the post.)

Since this is a Kraft recipe, they suggest their own brands of everything, but I'll just write it as generic (I made a generic version). 

Here is a printer-friendly version!


Cool 'n Creamy Coffee Freeze

Ingredients:

1 cup whole milk

Ice cubes (see directions for quantity)

1 cup frozen Cool Whip

1 package (4 serving size) instant vanilla pudding mix

1 Tbsp. instant coffee granules

Directions:

Put the milk in a large glass measuring cup and add enough ice to measure 3 cups total. Pour into a blender. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend on high speed until smooth.

(Note: While the serving size below says 100 grams, note that it's actually quite a bit more than that--this doesn't factor in the ice cubes. This serving size is for 1/4 of the recipe. The nutrition info is correct; just ignore the 100g serving size)

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Not even a real post anyways

The name of this post is dumb, I know! The other day, Jerry said something about Canada; and then when I heard "Canada", for some reason, my mind went to that song in the South Park Movie (yes, from 1999-ish!). "Blame Canada! It's not even a real country anyways". And it's been in my head for days now. And that's where the title of this came from. 

Tonight has been stressful. Rather than try to think of something to write, I'm just going to post a few random pictures. Today wasn't a particularly stressful day, but after this evening, I'd like to just go to bed (actually, I should be going to bed early anyways--I'm trying to get on a good sleep schedule, and it got all of whack when we got the kittens!).

I don't even have a lot of photos to post, but here are a few.

Jerry made dinner today--and it was fantastic! He made homemade chicken noodle soup. He actually started it yesterday (boiling a whole chicken) and then today he finished it by straining the broth, removing the meat from the carcass, and then actually making the soup. I was super impressed--it was delicious!

And of course, here are a couple of photos of the kittens... They LOVE sleeping on Jerry's pillow. And I adore that they always like sleeping together.

I wanted to get a good picture of them against a background that was a good contrast to their fur (pretty much nothing in this house is!). Today, I had the perfect photo opportunity when Chick was draped across the couch in my bedroom. I LOVE this picture!

Here is a photo of Estelle and Phoebe as they watched the kittens play in the living room. They are both SO angry at me. Estelle has been warming up just a little, but I miss her. She used to be joined to my hip 24/7. Phoebe is still so spitting mad that she'll swipe at me with her claws when I try to pick her up. She's never been like that before! I'm sure she'll adjust, but she's definitely being dramatic.

It's funny that the kittens seem fearless of the cats, though. Chick, especially, likes to follow Phoebe around out of curiosity! And neither of the kittens is scared of Joey--Joey has always been at the bottom of the totem pole as far as the pets go (poor dog!). I'm glad he's so cool with the cats, though ;) 

I had planned to have some sort of a movie marathon or whatever with Jerry today, but that just didn't happen. We were super busy doing random stuff that needed to get done up until about 3:00, when we finally watched a little bit of Gilmore Girls (I love that he loves that show!). 

Right now, it's only 10:30 and I can barely keep my eyes open! I haven't slept much since we got the kittens. Last night, they slept on the bed with us. I was nervous about it, because I was so worried I'd smother one of them in my sleep. I was lying on my stomach, trying to fall asleep, when I felt one of the kittens come up to my head and drape himself across my neck. Then he put his face right in my ear and started purring. It was so cute and funny that I just let him do it. And I got pretty much no sleep last night.

I've started leaving my bedroom door open so the kittens are free to leave the bedroom when they want to. They pretty much just go wherever we are, though. 

Okay, I'm going to bed for real now. I am so tired!

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FINALLY Naming the Kittens...?!

After having the kittens for three days, we STILL hadn't named them. I really need to make a vet appointment for them, so names are required! 

This morning, we narrowed it down to to two choices (after reading everyone's opinions on my Facebook post):

1) Chick and Duck

2) Geller and Bing

We decided to let my Facebook followers make the final decision... with a poll! And then when I started to write up the poll, I realized that Facebook took away that option. There was no way to make a poll on a Facebook page... I have no idea why!

I really loved the idea of other people choosing for us, so I look for other options... and I found a site that allowed you to make you own polls and then post them to Facebook. I spent the time creating it and got it posted... only to find out (afterward) that you can only collect 40 votes. If you want to collect more than 40, you have to pay for a subscription! 

So, I deleted the post... I hated doing that, but I was not about to pay for a subscription for a one-time "just for the fun of it" poll. 

I have no idea how many people would have voted for what; but the choices we had put up were the overwhelming majority of what people had previously selected. So, we had to figure it out on our own. 

It's such a stupid topic, really. How hard could it be to name two kittens?! 

After talking to the kids, we decided to go with... Chick and Duck!

I can't say I *love* the names... but I do love that they make sense for our Friends theme and that we'll likely never get this chance again (to name two cats at the same time). When I hear "Geller", I think of Ross, and I hate Ross. Hahaha! So, I voted for Chick and Duck.

We decided to name "the short haired one" Duck, and "the long haired one" Chick. It feels weird saying those names, but we HAD to come up with something, and so many people loved the idea of Chick and Duck that it was hard NOT to name them that!

So, I introduce to you Chick and Duck. (a.k.a. "The One With The Long Hair" and "The One With The Short Hair"). 

In a nutshell, Chick (the top left of the photo above) is VERY cuddly and purrs almost constantly. He plays with his brother a lot, but also likes his sleep. And he loves to eat! When we give them their wet food, he goes crazy for it. When I eat something near them, he has tried to eat it right out of my mouth, hahaha. As I write this, he is draped across my shoulder while he sleeps. 

On the other hand, Duck is much more playful. He's still cuddly when he's tired, but he plays a LOT and he recruits his brother as often as possible (whether wanted or not). He's very bold and loves to explore new territory--no matter where it is--and is always the first of the two to check things out.

I love this photo of Noah with the two of them!

Together, the two of them love to roll around and wrestle, but they also love to cuddle when they are sleeping. It's SO STINKIN' ADORABLE. I actually managed to get a cute picture of them today when they were sleeping together--and hugging!

 

Okay, I promise that not every post I write is going to be about the kittens now. They are fitting in well with the family (they and Joey are totally cool; Phoebe and Estelle, on the other hand, need more time). Adopting kittens is just the most exciting thing to happen to our family in a long time! We are all thrilled. 

Jerry is off work tomorrow, and I think we're going to have a totally lazy day--rather than working on the garage or other projects, I would love to just have a movie marathon or something. We're supposed to have a cold front coming through (with possible snow!) this week. I can't say I'm surprised. Michigan's weather never fails to surprise me!

Today, I got the materials to start taping and mudding the walls of the garage. I figured I can do that while I wait for the drywall for the ceiling to be delivered (at least a week, but most likely two weeks). I will place the order tomorrow, and hopefully find out then.

It's going to feel so odd NOT doing something productive tomorrow. But I think it's necessary for both Jerry and me. He's been at work, and I've been working non-stop on project after project at home. I hope it'll be relaxing to take a break tomorrow!

I hope everyone is staying healthy and safe! xo 

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Dealing With Bipolar Hypomania

I've been thinking lately that I may be hypomanic. I've been trying to be more aware of my mood shifts, and lately, I've really been experiencing some symptoms of hypomania.

Examples:

*Adopting two kittens. I can't say this is totally crazy, but I've always said we wouldn't get more cats until Phoebe and Estelle have passed away.

*Taking on multiple projects. Without taking the time to really plan things out carefully, I ordered the insulation and drywall and just went to town on the garage. I had no idea what a big project it would turn into! But because I love working on a project all day long until I can do as much as possible, it hasn't taken too long to get the insulation and drywall up. I finished the fourth wall yesterday, and now it's time for the ceiling (so help me God).

*I've also contacted a couple of contractors to get an estimate for building a large concrete porch. This is something I've wanted for YEARS now, and this is the perfect time to do it. Our porch is a death trap right now because it's so old and falling apart. I've looked into building a new one myself, but concrete is just one project I don't really want to try myself right now ;) 

*Another project I took on was sewing face masks. I love to sew, and it seemed so simple. It's really not hard to make them, but they take a long time for each one because it's meticulous adding the pipe cleaner and then sewing the hair ties in to hook it around your ears. Each one takes me roughly an hour to make, and today I completed about 40 more (in total, I've made about 125!). That's a LOT of time spent working on masks!

And to make matters worse, NOBODY has received the ones that I mailed on Monday. I am getting really worried. I don't want to mail out more just yet, because I'll be horrified it they got lost. All of that time wasted! (I did call the post office today, and they said that shipping has been very slow; that if there was a problem with the shipping cost, they would have been returned right way. So, if you're expecting a mask from me, it *should* arrive soon!)

Meanwhile, I made another batch... there are about 40 here. Once I find out if the others have reached their destinations, I'll give these ones away, too, for a small (optional) donation.

*I've been spending a little too much money lately, too (another symptom of hypomania). We have the extra money right now (since we canceled our San Francisco trip AND we had to cancel Eli's school trip to Washington D.C., we got some large refunds (I requested a refund from Delta instead of Delta credit, and they agreed--it took some finagling with the credit card company, but it was nice to get that refunded). 

Anyway, I bought the new Brooklinen sheets, a Cricut (which I still haven't opened), and a woodworking tool (it wasn't crazy expensive--about $80). I can't say that I regret the purchases, but I definitely want to reel it in because we need to save that extra money in case Jerry is laid off. They laid off about 60-70% of people in the plant, and he was one of the lucky ones to keep his job. (He's a fantastic employee, so I'm sure it wasn't just "luck".)

I have to say, though the Brooklinen sheets were 100% worth the money. Jerry even said that he's sleeping better since we got them!

*I also keep making plans and not following through (this isn't super new--I tend to do this a lot!--but lately it's been worse than usual). I have been making numerous attempts at weight loss, but I just can't seem to stick to it. I'm not even trying any crazy diets or anything--I can't even just stick to counting calories.

*My eating schedule has been all over the place. Usually, I go all day without eating because I keep myself so busy, and then I just eat way too much at night when I finally chill. When I'm hypomanic, I usually don't have an appetite. And I used to lose weight pretty easily while hypomanic--but apparently my mood stabilizers are stabilizing me just enough to keep that from happening.

*Running is another one. I have a schedule written out to get back to running, and I'll follow it for a couple of days and then quit. Over and over. If I'm going to run the half-marathon with Adam in October, I really need to build up a solid base again. So, I get ambitious and make training plans and then I don't follow through.

*My sleep has been an issue, too. I want to stay up all night long because I feel like I don't need any sleep! I made plans to try to get on a good sleeping schedule, but the weekend really messed that up (Jerry was off work, so we stayed up later). 

There are parts of hypomania that I enjoy--the excess energy, getting a LOT done (drywalling, sewing masks, working out all of the financial stuff for our canceled trips, etc.) The parts that aren't so fun are the insane irritability and quick mood shifts. 

I actually haven't an appointment with my psychiatrist next week, so I'll talk to him about it. The hypomania isn't TOO bad, so I don't know that we'll change up my meds. I really think that if I can make a daily schedule and stick to it, I'll do better. Routine is SO CRUCIAL when dealing with bipolar disorder. 

Maybe when my school-year routine changed, it triggered the hypomania. My life is all over the place right now! Mainly by drowning myself in projects. And I'm not complaining--I love having the time to work on projects that I'm interested in! Right now, I'm dying to finish my garage so that I can build a desk with Noah. 

Anyways, over the last couple of days, I've been thinking that maybe I am hypomanic. And after writing this out, I'm pretty sure the answer is yes! 

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Cat Antics and Ambitious Projects

Right now, I have to pee so badly! And I really want to go get some ice to chew on while I write this. 

The problem? Both of the kittens are sleeping on my shins (I'm sitting on my couch with my feet up) and I don't want to disturb them. If you have cats, then you totally know the feeling ;)

So yesterday's post was rushed--I was tired and it'd been a long day. I wanted to write about going to pick up the kittens--it was a new experience for us! As I mentioned, we adopted the kittens from a rescue. The rescue is called Friskie Felines of Michigan--and it's run by a woman named Vickie (and her husband) from her home.

I cannot even describe the respect I have for Vickie and her husband. They take in kittens that people find "abandoned" (I put that in quotes because Vickie said that a lot of times, the mama cat leaves her litter to get food or something and comes back to find that her babies are gone). Or, in other cases, kittens are found in bad situations and need to be rescued.

Vickie takes them into her home and cares for them around the clock until they are old enough to be adopted. Do you have any idea how much work that is? I didn't either!

Yesterday, when we went to pick up our kittens, I got to hold a teeny tiny kitten--SEVEN DAYS OLD! Its eyes weren't even open yet. Vickie said that someone gave the kitten to her when they were raking their landscaping and found it (I don't remember if it's a boy or girl). 

The kitten has to eat every three hours, and luckily, Vickie also has a mama cat from another litter thats she'd rescued... Vickie puts the mama cat in a crate with the lone kitten and that mama can nurse the kitten. If she didn't have a mama kitten to be a surrogate, then Vickie would have to do the work herself by bottle feeding. Every THREE HOURS.

I've never really understood how non-profit animal rescues work, but seeing Vickie at Friskie Felines has given me a whole new respect for the people that do this work every day. I'll describe our night with the kittens last night, but I will first say... yikes! Having kittens is just as hard (if not harder) that having a new baby. They are just as demanding. (And still so cute that you don't mind, haha. Like now, for instance--I want to get up but I just can't possibly disturb the kitties!)

Anyways, normally I don't promote particular charities, but after seeing the work that Vickie and her husband do from their home (I can't even tell you how many cats they take care of there!) I wanted to post a link to donate to Friskie Felines if you are feeling generous. I assure you that the money is going toward true cat lovers that put their entire lives at the feet of these cats! (Here is their Facebook page, and you can donate there if you would like to) Whenever I donate to a cause, I always like to know where my money is going--and I was happy to donate to Friskie Felines! (And of course, if you are local and looking to adopt a cat, definitely look at the cats/kittens they have available!)

Okay, so yesterday, Jerry, Eli, and I went to go pick up the kittens from Vickie's home (they don't have a shelter--they literally take care of all these cats and kittens in their house!). When we got there, Eli said he'd never actually seen a kitten in-person before. My heart broke when I heard that! Once I thought about it, I guess I wasn't surprised, but I felt bad that it was his first time seeing kittens.

And he got to see a nice spectrum--from the seven-day old kitten to babies who were about 4-5 weeks to ours who are about 8-9 weeks old. When we left, he kept talking about how cute they all were. (Noah was being a typical 15-year old and was still sleeping when we left at 10:15 AM--so he didn't go with us.)

Holding the one-week old kitten was a new experience for me, and I almost couldn't stand how adorable all the kittens were! There were some gray tabbies that nearly stopped my heart from beating.

After bringing home our two solid black kittens, I have to say, I am totally in love with them. They have the cutest personalities! And it's so funny how different they both are, even though they look identical (except that one has long hair and one has short hair).

And no, we STILL haven't named them *eye roll*. I need to make a vet appointment for them this week, so I have to come up with names, but we just can't decide. So far, Chick and Duck seem to be at the top of the list ;) I love the idea of naming them Chick and Duck (perfect for our Friends theme) but actually calling them that feels odd.

They slept really good last night! I put them in my bedroom (with a litter box in our bathroom) so they wouldn't have full access to the house--just the smaller space of my bedroom and bathroom. Jerry had his alarm set for 4:30 AM, and when he got up, the kittens decided that they were ready to play. I got up at the same time, and just watching them was very entertaining! 

Once Jerry left, they finally settled down at about 6:00. Then I went out to the garage at around 8:00 to finish the drywall. I got all four walls done! Next step is the ceiling, which I'm completely dreading. I'm going to rent a drywall lift, though, so hopefully that will make it easier. Then comes the taping and mudding--which you know I love (that is sarcasm, by the way). It felt good to get the walls done, though. Now I can have a little of my garage back (the sheets of drywall were lying on a pallet in the middle of the garage, taking up so much space).

Next, I worked on another batch of face masks that I'm making. I got some fabric from my mom, and a request for masks from my brother's girlfriend, Alex. I really like her, so I decided to make the masks she wanted; and then I figured since I was making those, I might as well make the biggest batch I can. I haven't counted them, but there are probably about 50 more?

Right now, all I have left to do is attach the elastic for the ears. I should get them done tomorrow.

I'm pretty worried because I sent off a huge batch (50+) of envelopes containing masks on Monday, and NOBODY has received theirs yet! I spent SO much time working on those, and I can't even tell you how frustrated and upset I'll be if nobody receives them. I'm going to go to the post office tomorrow and talk to them to see what may have happened. 

For this next batch, I plan to do a drawing--I'll select people at random rather than "first come first serve". Again, the fabric was limited, so there isn't a lot to choose from. Since I'm giving them away for a donation, I love the phrase "beggars can't be choosers" ;)  Jerry uses that phrase a lot, and it helps me feel better when I make things for people without charging them. If they were paying a lot of money for them, then I would feel a need to make it perfect. I don't want to put that much pressure on myself! So I'll give them away for a donation again 

FIRST, though, I want to talk to the post office and find out what the heck happened to the first batch. How can 50+ envelopes get lost in the mail?!

Anyways, if you're waiting for a mask, I apologize--not a single person has received theirs yet!--and I will let you know what I find out. 

And if you still need a mask, I am working on them now... hopefully I'll be able to send them out by the end of the week!

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The Kittens' First Day

It's almost 10:00, and I am just now writing a post... it's been such a busy day! I'll post a little now, but hopefully will catch up tomorrow.

Like I said yesterday, today was the day we could pick up our kittens! When we recently planned to adopt a couple of tuxedo cats, they were just not happy leaving their foster home (where they'd been since they were just a few weeks old). They didn't eat a single bite of food by day three, so we ended up giving them back to their foster home (the rescue where we were adopting them from).

I had mentioned wanting older cats because kittens are so easy to adopt out (everybody wants kittens); but they said that black kittens are very hard to adopt out and they happened to have four of them that were going to be ready for adoption in a few weeks (after getting spayed/neutered).

I wanted to get two males (they get along better than females, and considering we already have two females, I felt it was a safe bet). Eli really wanted a long-haired cat, and one of the black ones happened to have long hair. So, we knew which kitties we were getting--we just had to be patient and wait for the time to pick them up.

I mentioned yesterday that we were trying to come up with our Friends-themed names, to keep with tradition, so I asked for input on Facebook. It was so fun to read through and see what everyone thought!

To save you the suspense, we STILL haven't picked their names. I don't know why this is such a hard decision! We even looked up a list of every single character that was ever on Friends--and we just couldn't come to a decision.

So, I'll have to share their names later. For now, we've been calling them "The One With the Long Hair" and "The One With the Short Hair". So original! (If it wasn't for their hair lengths, we would not be able to tell them apart at all.)

It actually was kind of funny, because Jerry said we should literally name them "The One With the Long Hair" and "The One With the Short Hair". If you're a Friends fan, then you know that all of the episodes titles started with "The One Where..." or "The One With...", etc. It would be pretty ironic to name them that! haha

In a nutshell:

The One With the Short Hair... We were actually talking about naming him "Fun Bobby" because his personality really does fit! He's very spontaneous and bold. Extremely curious--he always checks things out first, and then his brother will follow. He even sniffed out Joey almost right away.

The One With the Long Hair... He is very cautious, but super sweet and cuddly. He will purr immediately when you pick him up and he just falls completely limp on your lap while he sleeps.

Together, they're adorable! They play rough with each other--chasing each other all over the place and tumbling around, wrestling on the floor. They are SO curious and SO full of energy! We hadn't had a kitten since Chandler, and that was in 2003--I'd forgotten just how curious and fun kittens are.

We spent all evening just watching them play. It was super entertaining!

Joey took to the kittens right away; he was very curious, of course, but he was more interested in their food than he was them, haha. Estelle and Phoebe hate me right now! They are super pissed about having new cats in the house--which I expected. I'm sure they'll come around in a week or so.

The kittens move SO quickly that it's nearly impossible to get a photo of them that isn't just a blur. But I did my best to a get a few. They aren't great photos, but I'll try and get some better ones with Noah's camera tomorrow.

Hoping to get some sleep tonight!  Haha

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The One Where We Name Our Kittens

I don't have time to write a "real" post right now, because Jerry and I are about to watch a movie... but tomorrow, we are going to pick up our new kittens from the animal rescue we are adopting them from. We are SO EXCITED.

As I mentioned a few times before, we are getting two kittens from a rescue (they are both solid black--we were told that black kittens are hard to adopt out--so sad!).

As you know, we have always named our pets after "Friends" characters. Currently, we have Joey (our "chabrador"--lab-chow mix); Phoebe (orange tabby); and Estelle (tortoiseshell).

Previously, we have had Chandler, Janice, Paolo, and Monica (all cats).

We are getting two male kittens, so we need two male names. Here are some ideas, keeping with the "Friends" theme (but we are open to others!):

1) Tag and Charlie
2) Chick and Duck
3) Gunther and Geller
4) Geller and Bing
5) Fun Bobby and Frank Jr. Jr.
6) Chip and Kip

We cannot use the name Chandler (he was our first cat and he passed away in 2016--we were devastated! His name is retired.) We could always forgo the Friends theme, but since we've done it for so long, it feels like we should continue the tradition!

Eli loves Breaking Bad, so he did suggest Combo and Badger from that show. I'm not opposed to it! I think those names are very cool for cats. But even Eli was thinking it'd be sad to break tradition from Friends.

Anyways, I will be sure to post some pictures tomorrow. We are so excited to pick them up!

I know that sometimes people have a hard time commenting here, so here is a link to my Facebook post about the names of the cats... feel free to post your opinion there!

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