So, I was going to start a thread on some kittens we happened to serve as foster parents (?) for, and the two we ended up adopting. Then I went and got engaged to my girlfriend (and best friend) who I’ve been dating for a while and living with for about the last year.
So first off, whee! I’m getting married! She’s a wonderful woman, smart, beautiful, witty, strong, and someone who complements me in a great many ways. I’m a lucky man. My folks also love her to pieces, and my mother was kind enough to offer her engagement ring, which I think is both a truly wonderful gesture on her part, and hopefully the start of a tradtion down the generations for the future Finn Family.
But there’s not much to say to that other than Mazel Tov, and how boring would that be for a thread? So, kittens.
This is the story of five kittens picked to live together in our house and find out what happens when they stop being polite and start… wait, wrong intro. Ahem.
This is the story of a litter of five playful kittens who were thrown out in a filthy garbage like so much trash. They made their way to the local SPCA, where my financee was working.
“I get to bottle-feed kittens at work!” she said.
“That’s wonderful sweetheart,” said I, “just don’t bring any of them home.”
“I got a job working at the SPCA and I’m taking care of kittens!” she told her family.
“That’s wonderful,” they said to her, “Just don’t bring any of them home.”
One day when I drove her to work, she invited me to come see the kittens. Kittens are cute, I agreed. Somehow during the half hour I spent playing with the kittens as the SPCA, the receptionist mentioned that they didn’t have enough room for all the cats, and needed a foster home for them. Like a giant lunkhead, I suggested that we could take them, for a short while at least. They were cute, after all. And very small. And as we all know, many times, small = cute. Did I mention that they were cute?
Well, later the next day we took home five cute little kittens and housed them in our computer room. They didn’t yet have names, but they had personality, and they were very playful.
In fact, I’d forgotten just how playful kittens can be. King of the Mountain was their favorite game. And, I was reminded as well, kittens come with their own toys built in. Never underestimate how much fun a kitten can have with another kitten’s tail. And, for that matter, never underestimate the unbearable cuteness of a kitty pile.
That chair was their favorite place to crash out after a long few minutes of unbound insanity. They really liked that chair. Really, really liked it.
And it was fun watching how the kittens got along. I’d never seen cats lick each other’s faces. Or, for that matter, spontaneously decide to start a bitin’. But the kittens never seemed to mind being gnawed on, and purred like happy kittens ought to. So we just laughed and smiled.
As our foster parentage wore on, we were made aware that we’d only have the kittens in our home for about a week and a half. And I, who had advised my fiancee not to bring any of them home, found myself unable to part with them. At first, I wanted to adopt all three males in the litter, as they were the sweetest and most playful. But after a week of cleaning a litterbox for five kittens, who’d come to us with some intestinal parasites from their time spent in the garbage, I let my fiancee serve as the voice of reason, and we decided on two of the boys who were some hep cats..
We sent the rest of the kittens on to their new temporary home at the North Shore Animal League, and adopted those two. Each of us got to name one kitten. My fiancee named hers checkerface, as his chin is half black, and half white. My kitten, of course, was named Spamzo. Because he looks like a Spamzo, of course.
Spamzo is, in my totally unbiased opinion, the cutest fluffball in the history of cuteness. He’s also tremendously sweet and friendly, and love to play and climb. In that picture, he’s climbing up the ~6’ feret cage because we put the girl ferret to bed for the night, and he wanted to say hi to her.
Later, he discovered the ferret hammock and ferret house which were inside the cage, and decided to bunk with the ferrets from time to time. Well, actually, he did this quite often. Tonka, a sleepy/lazy male ferret got along well with Spamzo, but I don’t think he could ever figure out what Spamzo was doing sleeping on top of his house. Spamzo’s climbing antics were definitely cute… but not quite so cute when he decided to roll around on the floor of the ferret cage. Especially the corners… anybody else who owns ferrets knows what that means. It took quite some time to shampoo him and get all the ferret poop off.
Which brings us to the end of the story. We have two new kittens living with us, and they are happy and healthy. They give our old male cat, Bonzai, a heck of a time; chasing him about and pouncing on him all day long. Spamzo’s going to be the alpha cat once he gets a bit bigger, but I’m sure he’ll be magnanimous in his reign, as he’s the sweetest thing this side of frosted sugar bombs. The kittens even get along well with the ferrets, playing chase all over the house. And I’ll be getting married, more likely than not in Austin next spring.
Adorable kittens and a wonderful woman… am I lucky or what?
