Kittens Become Cats

One year ago yesterday, I picked up two little black kittens at the Humane Society. That also means that one year ago Friday I lost Alexsi.

I went to the Humane Society intending to get two cats, not kittens, cats. I wanted cats about a year old, because I didn't want to deal with kitten stage. When I go there, I actually settled on a different cat: An eight-month old ragdoll, but I didn't. The ragdoll, while adorable couldn't be with another cat (and I was set on two) and had some poop issues. There was a Russian Blue, who at eight months old was bigger than most adult cats. And a tabby about the same age.... But no one was sure they would get along. There was a pair of older cats that were bonded. I really hated not taking them because they were adults, but while I didn't want teeny kittens, I didn't want grown cats. While I know they would have more years in front of them, having just lost two cats, I wanted and needed younger cats.

Because I wanted two, I was told the best thing to do would be to get two from the piles of kittens because they all liked each other. Oh, and I wanted boys.

It was the day after Thanksgiving and the Humane Society was having a "Black Friday" special. Adopt any cat with black on them for $25. I had initially noticed a block and black tabby, but the Human Society person pulled out two cats, checked them both and said: "Two boys." She also refereed to one of them as "the crazy one." We took them into one of the little consult rooms where they were more interested in playing with each other than anything else. And despite them being nothing like what I wanted (other than boys), I took them. I named then Boris and Ivan. Ivan was "the crazy one." They were both eight weeks old and full of energy.

Day 1. After checking the place out, they settled on the couch. Boris (left) and Ivan (right).

And then they got sick. Ivan had goopy eyes when I took him home so I expected him to develop an upper respiratory infection. And then the other one did. I got them on Friday and by Sunday I had them in the Emergency Vet (where they were treated by the same vet who I saw on Wednesday with Alexsi) because Boris was breathing so hard he was wheezing. A few weeks later I had them at the vet again to treat ringworm. All of this meant giving two kittens two different types of medicine twice a day. Oh, and then they had intestinal parasites. Medicine number three.

After two months and one round of URI and parasite meds and two rounds of tuna-flavored ringworm medicine, they were healthy.

Ivan (left) and Boris (right). One year later. 

They've grown into great cats. They're not as needy as Sasha was. They are more cat-like, meaning that they like to curl up next to me on the couch, but they aren't big lap cats and neither one of them likes to be picked up. Boris, the bigger of the two, is overly skittish, but he is the first to curl up next to me when I sit on the couch. Despite being skittish, he's the hunter of the two. He will pick up a toy, throw it across the room and chase after it. He drags around a specific toy, it's a puffball on a long thin metal cord. That's all he does--he just drags it from room to room. Every so often he'll hold the puffball in his mouth and chase the end of the cord. When he was a kitten he would leap through the air and catch any toy I threw in midair--and then carry it around while growling. He's stopped growling and he is too big to leap that high in the air, but he's still a hunter. 

Ivan is still "the crazy one." And he was crazy, but he has grown into a very inquisitive cats. Highly active, he is a fast and agile cat. He hates to be picked up, yet he is the one that will follow me from room to room and curl up on my feet regardless of what I am doing. Ivan rarely meows like a normal cat, instead he shakes his head while making a weird squeaky noise--or he does a half meow that ends in a strange gurgley sound. When he does meow like a normal cat it's because he wants something. Like food. 

They're my cats. And they're awesome. And I'm gad the Human Society volunteer pulled them out of the pile of kittens and said, "Here, two boys."