Chuck Smith's Blog

Kittens Kittens Everywhere! October 19, 2008

After much planning and deliberation we have now successfully adopted two adorable kittens!
Athena is a white Siamese girl, and Zephyr is a black medium-haired boy. Both are shelter cats, adopted from the local pet store.

It was quite an ordeal getting these two. We definitely wanted to adopt shelter pets to support those great organizations that help unwanted animals. However, the first shelter we went to wanted to do a house visit to make sure our condo was suitable for kittens. They mentioned another couple who had to keep all their windows closed and vowed to never use their balcony! We eventually gave up on that and went with another organization that still required an extensive application, but at least we could get pre-approved over the phone. At any rate, on Thursday, October 9, 2008, Amanda visited the Pet Smart in UTC and chose two adorable specimens to take home.

Since then our lives have been filled with teaching the cats the word “No”, why they shouldn’t jump on the coffee table while we’re eating, why they shouldn’t fight in bed at 3am when we’re trying to sleep, and cleaning up a minor vomit incident. What surprised us? Athena’s small sneezes turned into a full-on cold that required a vet visit and 3 separate medicines to be given on a regular basis (bubble-gum white syringe squirter, vitamin gel, and eye gel); Zephyr has ear mites!; a pencil is Zephyr’s favorite toy; Athena likes to hide in the okapis.

At this point we’re still getting used to having some new critters in the house, and hoping they don’t harbor permanent hatred towards us for leaving them alone during the day. In spite of some initial trepidation, I think they have grown to like each other and can even be seen sleeping together at times. We’re proud to be new parents and look forward to the upcoming months of kittenhood!