Our Babies

On Saturday, we adopted two sweet little furball babies! I have been wanting to get a pet for almost the whole time we’ve been married, but it just didn’t make sense to get one while we were renting apartments and moving so much. Now that we’re “somewhat settled” in our house, we decided (well, mostly I did) that the time was right to expand our family. Travis is not a huge cat lover, but he knew that if he wanted to get a dog at some point, we’d have to have a cat to appease me! Our original plan was to get a kitten and puppy at the same time so that they could grow up together and be friends. But, then we decided that the cat and dog probably wouldn’t have much interaction together so it really didn’t matter if we got them at the same time or not. When we get a dog, it will be an outside dog, and our kittens are going to be completely inside cats. I just don’t think it’s a good idea to let cats outside; plus, we have two really big, scary dogs living next door!

So, I had been looking on Craigslist and Petfinder for weeks/months trying to find the perfect pet for us. I went to Governors Choice Animal Hospital (not too far from where I work) to look at their kittens last week. They had 3 cuties!! Travis went to see them with me on Friday and he liked one of them pretty well, but we didn’t want to get her on a spur of the moment decision. So, Saturday morning we went to Pet Depot in Madison where MARF does their weekly adoptions every Saturday. Basically, all of their pets are in “foster” homes, and the foster parents bring their pets to Pet Depot every Saturday hoping that some will be adopted. When we got there on Saturday, I immediately fell in love with a beautiful calico named Mary Ann. She was about 9 months old, and she was so sweet and pretty. She had a rough life before she was rescued, and it just broke my heart to hear about what she’d been through. The picture doesn’t do her justice…she is so pretty! But, Travis really wanted to get a kitten “if we had to get a cat”, so we kept looking. Eventually, a lady brought in a whole bunch of gray kittens that had just recently been found behind the library in Madison. They’d been to the vet to get fixed and get their shots, and she’d only had them for 2 days. Travis immediately took to a couple of them, and after holding them for a while and trying to decide, we ended up taking two of them home!! We weren’t planning to come home with more than one, but we decided that it would be good for them to have a friend to play with when we’re not around.

Without further ado, meet Felix and Gabby!!!

Gabby (left) and Felix (right), after we brought them home Saturday!

Felix likes to cuddle up in this beach towel!

Travis loved Felix from the start!

Travis and Gabby

Gabby and me

Felix and me

We have made our guest bathroom their “home” while they are getting adjusted to living with us, and they have already taken over that room! It wasn’t long before they were in the tub, on the counter, on the toilet…pretty much everywhere! We tried to kitten proof the room, but apparently we should have taken the towel off of the towel rack because yesterday morning I came in to find that they had pulled it down into their litter box! I didn’t think they could reach it, but I guess I was wrong!

Gabby is definitely the leader of the two of them. She is the more adventurous one, and Felix follows behind. We have started letting them out into other rooms in the house, and Gabby is always to first one to come out. Whenever she leaves Felix behind, he will start to meow louder and louder until he finds her or she comes back to get him. It is so cute! Gabby is also the more friendly kitten toward us. She will sit in our laps without us having to hold her, and she will stay for as long as we’ll let her. She immediately starts purring when we pet her, and this morning she even started purring when I came into the room! Felix is friendly to us most of the time, but I don’t think he’s going to be a lap cat. He will let us hold him but not for long! Every once in a while he will hiss at us when we come into the bathroom. I’m not sure if it’s because we startle him when we come in or because we’ve “invaded his territory”. Either way, he’s not doing it as much anymore, and he definitely likes us because he lets us pet him and he usually starts purring.

They are doing great with using their litter box so far! They’ve only had one accident so far, so I think that’s doing pretty good. They are eating really well too. They are very skinny, so we’re trying to fatten them up a little. I think they’re already gaining a little weight! They eat dry food in the mornings usually, and wet food at night. They love chicken and gravy and salmon/tuna, but they didn’t really like the turkey we tried for some reason. They usually eat almost the whole can in one sitting between the two of them!

They love to play with each other, and they already seem like best buddies. They like to chase each other around, wrestle, and play tug of war with their toys. They also like to cuddle together at night. They are just so much fun!! I’ve spent a lot of time this week just sitting in the bathroom watching them playing and petting them. Travis is enjoying them too, but I know he’ll been even more excited to get a boxer pup one of these days!

It is funny how much I feel like a “parent” already, and these are just pets! We got up 3 times the first night we brought them home to check on them when they were meowing or making noise. Travis said if this is how it’s going to be when we have an actual baby, he’s not going to do very well. He doesn’t function well on little sleep! We also got up once Monday night when we heard a loud crash…still not sure what that was! They are totally dependent on us for food and cleaning out their litter box. And I have to get on to them when they start jumping on the couches. We are trying to train them to stay off the furniture…we’ll see how well this goes. It’s going to be hard because they LOVE to climb. It’s just funny how much I already love those kittens…I’m definitely attached :)

Felix trying to decide if he’s going to come out!

Miss Gabby

They love the entertainment center….much to Travis’s dismay!

Felix following the leader…

Exploring the foyer

Felix hanging out last night

Gabby again

Felix playing with one of their toys

He loves that thing!

King Felix

Gabby chowing down

Felix found himself in the mirror!

They love to watch the faucet drip!

Gabby trying to catch the water drops!

We love wet food!

I am just so excited to finally have pets!!! They are so entertaining and fun!!!