meet Emily and Arlo

So, this happened Sunday afternoon. 

 Here they are in their cage before we took them home. 

Emily is on top of the condo and Arlo is in it.

Meet Emily and Arlo, the newest additions to our little family. They're four months old and, as you can see, kind of hard to tell apart.  There's a total of 4.5 pounds of cuteness there.

Bob and I had been thinking of getting a kitten for a few months now, mainly because we feel Marty needs a friend to play with to take his focus off of Leia and Louise; he likes to stalk them and just looking at Marty gets the two girls all in a tizzy, which has caused some frustrating behavioral problems with Leia.  Once we lost Thelma, that's when we got a little more serious about getting a kitten.

This weekend was tough:  we had my father's burial service. There were a few snags with the service, but it got done. We had a good time afterwards hanging out with the family, eating pizza and s'mores dip (marshmallows and Hershey bars baked together in the oven, served with graham crackers; yes, it's as delicious as it sounds!), and sending my dad off with lots of fireworks we shot off in the yard (they're legal in his state).  But it was an emotionally tough weekend overall, both because of the burial and other reasons.  We drove home late Saturday night and got home around 1:30 a.m. on Sunday morning; I was drained.

Sunday we spent some time doing yard work before we had to go somewhere. I finally got all the garden soil into the raised bed garden that Bob built for me (thank you!) and got my plants planted.  I planted three pepper varieties:  red bell, pimento, and jalapeno. I also planted three tomato plants and two lavender plants. I then planted one little corn plant.  (Oddly enough, I found a corn plant growing in my parsley plant. I think it came from some bird seed spilling near the pot. I'm going to see if it grows.)  As you can see, there aren't a lot of plants in here. I wanted to start small, since I'm not too good at keeping plants alive and tending a garden.  Also, the tomato plants need a lot of space to grow.

We then left to drive down to our old town. We stopped by the Stratford Cat Project to check out two kittens. We didn't plan to leave with them the same day, but since they're four months old, they were all set with shots, testing, and spaying/neutering.

Their first meal at home.

Having kittens in the house again is awesome! They're full of energy and love to play; they're a riot to watch. Arlo is the more affectionate one and loves a good belly rub. Emily is a little more diva-like, but likes some attention, too. It's only been a few days, but they're already running up to us and rubbing all over us when we go upstairs to visit. I've made few introductions to the other cats and it sent reasonably well. Tiffany was curious at first, but quickly got used to them; she was playing in the same area as them within 10 minutes. Max was cautiously curious and sniffing everything, but eventually turned tail and ran (interesting, because he's the biggest one in the house). Baily wasn't thrilled. He growled and fluffed his tail, then ran into the other room. Leo seems mostly indifferent. Marty is afraid of them (or mad). He hid under the bed in the other room. Once all the introductions are made--by way of bringing the other cats upstairs to them--we will open the bedroom door and let them explore. Should be interesting to see if Marty comes around quickly, considering he's the main reason we have them. But either way, I'm glad to have them. They're cute, fun, and there's the added benefit of having been therapeutic for me the last couple days.

I interrupted their playtime in order to get this picture. I had to make a weird noise in order to get them to look at me.