Cat Adoption

I know I've mentioned our cats before and today I'm going to tell you the story of how they joined the family, including the newest little kitten that we just picked up yesterday.

Back when my husband and were still dating he was shocked to learn that I had never had pets. He grew up in a house where there was always at least one dog and several cats. When we started dating his family had 3 dogs, 5 cats, and 2 birds. So a little bit after we were engaged he decided to get me a kitten. Actually because a single kitten can be kind of needy he decided to get me two kittens. That's how I ended up with two girl kittens that we named Caramel and Samira. They came from the same home but not from the same litter of kittens. Because they were a really young they lived with my husband and his family for a while. Early on they had trouble getting Caramel to eat but then one day we stopped to get Arby's for everyone on the way over and my husband was sitting on the floor eating a roast beef sandwich and she mewed super loud and climbed up his shoulder and tried to steal it.

Caramel and Samira Cat (Husband in the background keeping them pointed the correct direction for the camera)

Caramel Kitten hiding in the curtains

As all cats are they had their own set of personality quirks but they are both very goods cats.  Then about a year and a half after we were married his sisters rescued a couple of cats and ended up with a litter of kittens. They were having problems finding homes for all of the kittens. We originally were going to take one but they were so adorable we ended up keeping two of them. This is how we got the boys, Parker and Balder. When they came to our house they were tiny but they grew up fast.

Balder and Parker

They quickly grew bigger than the girls and the girls weren't really sure what to do about that. Not right away but eventually our poor Samira cat decided that she just couldn't deal with them any more and she started to hide out in our office so she wouldn't have to see them. She would let her sister, Caramel in but not the boys. No matter what we did we couldn't convince her to come out and be social. Then she quit eating and we couldn't figure out why... we took her to the vet and we force fed her for a while but she never started to eat on her own again. We lost her just short of a year ago, but her sister still looks for her. She wanders into the office, looks around, maybe pace for a little bit, and walk back out. She just seems very sad and lonely still. That's why we decided it might be time to get a new cat. Caramel tolerates the boys but she doesn't love and cuddle them. Our thoughts were that maybe if there was another cat smaller than her (or at least closer to same size) that she might be better friends with it. Plus part of the reason Parker annoys her is that he wants to play and she doesn't. So maybe a playful kitten he'd have a playmate and she would still be happier.

So my husband has been searching around kind of randomly online for kittens and on Friday found an adoption event at a place near us called Unleashed Pet Rescue. So on Sunday we went out to look at kittens. We had a very good experience there. They are a no kill shelter that operates on donations. They do not have a set adoption fee but ask that you pay what you can to help them offset the cost of all the medical expenses they have for the animals. The cat we adopted has had all of his shots and vaccines, he is neutered and microchipped. We also have a month of pet insurance coverage.

They have a room with kittens and we had a chance to just kind of hang out in there and watch how the cats interacted with each other and how they reacted to us as well as other people. There were a couple of black kittens that we really wanted to adopt because they reminded us of Samira and we thought that might help Caramel feel better but they were very shy and we could see that it wouldn't work out well. What we did find was a tiny little orange tabby kitten that constantly wanted to play with us. He also approached several of the other cats and was hissed at and backed down, but then later try to play with the same cat. So we figured he could probably deal pretty well with our other cats.

His name from the shelter is Curtis but we will most likely change it. We are slowly introducing him to the other cats and it seems to be going well. When one of our big boys hissed at him he hissed back and the other cat laid down. He is still nervous around them and will run to one of us occasionally for reassurance. As long as that can happen he seems pretty fearless. All three of our cats have hissed in his face and he has hissed or growled back at all of them. We got out a feather toy and the three boys seemed to coexist quite happily but Caramel sat to the side and judged everyone. We did bring her a small Arby's sandwich to help ease her stress because she's never been good with change and it did seem to help her calm down at least somewhat.

Feather Fun

Judging Face

Even though they are in no way related here we already have pictures showing a family resemblance.

We already have a few ideas for names but are waiting a few days to get a better idea of his personality before we make a final decision. That being said if we're open to suggestions if any of you have name ideas. I'll try to keep you updated on his integration into the family.