Introducing the two newest members of our family!

Jasper and Blossom!

As some of you may know, we have a cat-crazed daughter. From the time she could say the word, she has been yearning for a kitten of her own. When E was two and a half, we were in a restaurant that displayed an assortment of stuffed animals to purchase. She immediately fell in love with a stuffed kitty, and wouldn't put it down. This first kitty was named "Mama Kitty". In the next couple of years, she started to collect an assortment of little beanie babies that she named, and added to her "kitty family"- Vanilla, Chocolate, Holly, Marshmallow and Georgie. Every night she slept with her kitty family, and dreamed of the day that she would have a real kitty cat.

There were several obstacles preventing this from happening. Our family was still growing, and I didn't want to add any more animals to the mix. And then there were all the allergies to be taken into consideration. Although I grew up with cats I had developed an allergy to them during my teen years. I was babysitting kids that were allergic, and then our small church group met in our home, and there were allergic people in there. Also, there were several allergic moms in our playgroup. But then I wasn't babysitting those kids, our church group split up into a couple of different groups and the allergic members were no longer in our home, and finally the moms that were allergic in our playgroup had other commitments and couldn't come anymore. But most importantly, my allergies seem to have improved. I think it had alot to do with having children, and my hormones changing. I can now hold and pet cats, but still have to be careful not to touch my eyes afterwards.

Ed and I started talking about the possibility of getting a kitten about a year ago. We really wanted to surprise E on Christmas morning, but it wasn't kitten season in December, so we decided to hold off. We thought about it through the summer, but we were going away so much, we didn't want to do anything until after school started. Of course back to school time is crazy with all the schedules and activities, and we just didn't have the time to consider it. We finally got a breather and realized kitten season was at the end, and if we wanted to do this, we had to act fast or we would be in the same situation as last year.

So Friday afternoon we called up the cat rescue lady (CRL), and set up an appointment. We told E when she came home from school, and she couldn't believe we had changed our minds after all these years. When we got to the house where CRL lived, we went up to her special "kitten room" where she had a collection of about 10 kittens. We looked, played, discussed, and decided on two little grey tabbies- a brother and sister pair. We had been talked into two kittens by the CRL who said that they would be much happier in pairs, and it would be easier for us. We saw the wisdom in this, and left with our two new little bundles of joy.

On the way home, E declared the girl kitty would be "Blossom". I didn't see anything wrong with that name, so Ed and I discussed possibilities for the boy. Although I liked "Basil", as it went with Blossom as sibling name, Ed wasn't too thrilled. He suggested "Jasper", and I liked it well enough, so "Jasper" it is.

The kitties are still settling in. They spend most of the time in the laundry room where we have their food, litter, beds, and toys. We occasionally open the doors and let them come upstairs, under close supervision, but they are nervous around Holly and seem to prefer being in their safe zone for now. Their favorite spot is in their cozy bed on top of the dryer. They cuddle in there together, while keeping an eye on who comes in and out. Jasper is more of the snuggle bug, and loves to sit right under my neck while Blossom is the playful one. She runs, chases toys and explores and then when she is exhausted, she consents to sitting in our laps for a snuggle session.




It's fun to see all the kids loving on the kittens, but it is especially nice to watch E with them, knowing that these kittens are the answer to so many of her wishes and prayers.