The pitter patter of little feet.

A few weeks ago, our insurance guy emailed Chris about adding on some extra life insurance, "just in case we were starting to think about the pitter patter of little feet." Chris emailed back a big NOT YET, but little did he know that those feet would be pitter pattering sooner than he thought. Just not baby feet. We're talking kitten feet here.

Chris and I knew we were going to get a cat at some point. When we moved into our condo, I said, "Now?" And he said, "Let's wait until we're settled."

Sometime in April, as we were lounging in bed one Saturday morning, he finally told me what I was waiting for: "I think we can get a kitten now."

Woo-hoo! I was on my laptop in less than a minute looking for craigslisted kitties, while Chris tried desperately to reign in my enthusiasm. You see, while I had finally gotten the okay, he reminded me we were taking two vacations in the coming months, and it just didn't make sense to get a kitten and then not be around for a week to keep it from eating the furniture. 

And though I've dragged him to Petcos and PetSmarts and fallen in love with no more than three different kittens, he held firm to his decision that we would not be getting our cat until we got back from the Vegas family reunion at the end of June. (Confession: I hit up both a Petco and an animal shelter the afternoon before we flew out to Vegas. I wanted to be ready when we got back.)

During our trips to Petcos, and meeting with various kitten foster parents, we were told many organizations would only sell two kittens at a time. That was pretty discouraging, as there was a beautiful little girl kitten at the Grossmont Center Petco that we really liked. But Chris wasn't sold on the two kitten deal. I polled some Facebook peeps on whether two kittens were better than one, and it pretty much unanimously came back as two kittens being the better way to go. Apparently they are less destructive that way.

Alas, Chris was not to be sold on the two kittens idea. I even asked him in Vegas, after I won us $40 playing Blackjack, if we could get two if I won enough money for the second. His response: "You can get two kittens if you win a thousand dollars."

(Obviously, from the photos above, our story ends with two kittens, but no, I did not win $1000 in Vegas. Not for lack for lack of trying, though.)

We got back from Vegas Saturday night, and Sunday morning I pulled my laptop into bed with me and began my search. Sarah and I had seen some fluffy looking little guys that would be at the El Cajon Petco that day, and I wanted to make sure we got there right away because they were soooo beautiful. While I was on Craigslist, however, another ad caught my eye. An organization called SNAP was having a deal on a set of kittens because the fosters were going out of town the next day. Only $65 per kitten, a much better deal than the $125 the other organizations were selling kittens for. The kicker, however? They have a rule that if you want two kittens, you get the second one free.

Let's clarify: Instead of one kitten for $125, we could get two kittens for $65.

Chris was interested. And even though the photos of the three kittens that were available weren't very flattering, we thought it was too good of a deal to pass up on. I ended up calling the foster parents to set up a meeting time that day, and he told me all about the kittens. They had two boys and a girl, and the boys were best buddies. Not only were they playful little guys, but they loooooooved cuddling. They were raised by the foster mom since they were ten days old, and the couple's giant dog had acted as their mama in the beginning. They'd been around people and dogs all their lives so they were super socialized, not shy or timid at all. They were fixed, vaccinated, microchipped, and all ready to go. 

So we went down to meet them, and guess what? We loved them. 

From the second she put them in our arms they cuddled our faces and licked our hands, and then we watched them play for a little while. They loved chasing a ping pong ball around, and we made a note to buy ping pong balls when we got them home. The foster mother also gave us two big bags of their food, which made the deal even better. 

So. Now we have kitten babies. We named them Jack and Sawyer, because we wanted them to have cute paired names, and I already kind of liked the name Jack. Jack's my cat, and Sawyer is Chris'. 

So here's what we've learned about them in the week and a half they've been part of our family:

1) Boy kittens like to play rough. There were times in the first few days I thought I'd have to intervene, but an internet search told me that was way normal and they really were just playing with each other.

2) Sawyer's super sensitive. Anytime we tell him "No!" to try to train him not to be on something, he'll freeze, stare at us sadly, and then turn and bolt. But he always comes back a few minutes later, happy as can be.

3) Jack is afraid to jump in a horizontal fashion. For instance, Sawyer has discovered he can jump from an armchair to the banister, but Jack refuses to try to jump. He looks like he's going to try every once in awhile, but he chickens out every time. He does, however, climb vertically very easily, unlike his brother. A few nights after we got them, I was eating soup at our tall kitchen table, and I watched as he circled the table several times trying to figure out how to get to my lap. Finally he just jumped, grabbed hold of my jeans, and scrambled the rest of the way up. He's super awkward, and super cute.

4) Jack is way more cuddly than Sawyer. Jack will let you pick him up and carry him around for awhile just to be with you, while Sawyer prefers to be loved on his own terms. Usually this means us walking up the stairs and finding him on the top of the banister, waiting for some loves. They're both especially cuddly when we come home and they've been alone for awhile.

5) When Jack cuddles, he just wants to kiss your face all over. I've got a cold right now, so it's especially difficult because he likes to press his wet furry noise right underneath mine. He also seems to want to crawl into our ears, nose first. 

6) Much as we'd like for them to cuddle up with us at bedtime, they're way too young and rowdy right now to just settle in to sleep. If we move a foot under the blankets, they pounce. So the bedroom door stays shut at night, but they've found plenty of places they like to sleep: the bathroom floor, a little cubby behind Chris' giant speakers, the armchair, and any other place besides their actual kitty bed. Waste of $15, I tell you. 

So that's our kitten story! We love them, and even Chris is happy we went with two instead of one. They really do keep each other busy, and less in our stuff, but they're still curious as all heck and will get into anything they have access to. Sawyer got stuck under the dishwasher the second night home, and today I had to search for Jack when I was playing with Sawyer and suddenly heard faint, desperate baby kitten squeaks. I thought he'd gotten himself stuck somewhere painful the way he was carrying on; turns out, he'd found his way into the hall closet while I was rummaging in there, and I must have closed the door on him later. Did that stop him from running right back in once the door was opened? Nope. 

Kittens!