furballs

Jun 25, 2013

Somehow in the past week we have adopted three new kittens. Our plan was to adopt one little girl for Annesley. She has been looking for about six weeks for the perfect first pet for herself. Keziah has Sadie (and the yearly batch of pups) and has had a hamster (now dead) as well, Blythe has Lina (the insane, anti-social cat that only a cat lover like Blythe could enjoy), Fisher has his chickens and has had a beta fish until it recently passed away, but Miss Annes has never had anything to love on and take care of.

We scoured Craigslist, Facebook ads, and neighbors’ litters. Annesley looked at gazillions of pictures, gone and looked at quite a few, and never could make up her mind. Finally last Sunday she talked to a woman in our ward about some kittens she had looked at clear back in May and decided to go look at them again. On the way there Fisher started begging for one as well. His sweet little voice melted our hearts and we decided if he liked one of them he could get one as well.

After searching for the kittens and then deciding to get them, rescuing two baby birds, losing a kitten in all the bird hullabaloo, and finally getting everyone and everything back in the car, we were the (proud?) owners of two new kittens (that I thought were not cute at all) and wondering if we had lost our minds. Fisher and Annesley were in love. Fisher promptly named his Haley after a character in Horton Hears A Who and Annesley named hers Peaches.

They both have tortoise shell coloring and put up with the children’s endless toting them around quite well. The children slept outside with them for the first several nights to help them get acclimated to their new home and all seemed to be going well.

Then on the first night the children slept inside, Peaches disappeared. Poor Haley cried all night long and Blythe went out in the middle of the night to find Peaches. No luck. The next morning everyone searched, but we couldn’t find her either. Annesley cried and cried, but we had to rush out the door to go help a friend move and didn’t have time for her to completely fall apart. I kept reassuring her that Peaches would turn up, but I knew the possibilities were slim. The owls around our house love little kittens and I really thought one of them had scooped her up. Richard kept looking for her for the rest of the day while he worked outside on the picnic table (yes, it is almost done!), but she was no where to be found.

Later that day we were at our local grocery store handing out flyers for a patriotic event next week and a family had a box of adorable kittens. They were so super-soft and calm AND ADORABLE – they melted my heart. Annesley immediately scooped one up and pleaded with her big, blue eyes to let her take it home with us. I called Richard and he agreed that Peaches was gone for good and Annes could have this new kitty.

We all fell in love her and Annes named her Sarah after Blythe’s faithful kitty that caught mice for us for nearly ten years. Today however, Annesley has changed her name to Rosie.

The next installment of the kitten saga is the return of Peaches. At church on Sunday our neighbor asked if we were missing a kitten and said they had been keeping her since she showed up in one of their trees a few days before. The little ones went and got her and so now we have three.

THREE. Oh my goodness. Kittens meowing everywhere. Kittens playing everywhere. Happy children. Snarling Lina. Such is life.