Aren't they adorable? They are brother and sister, Mollie and Pickles, and Jamie and I picked them up from the Blue Cross animal rescue centre on Friday. We've had our names down in the waiting list for kittens since the New Year, and they called a couple of weeks ago to say that they had a litter ready to go home and were we still interested? What a silly question! I fell in love with them at first sight. It took me ages to get these photos of them yesterday as they were dancing all around the kitchen, skidding on the laminate flooring and generally exploring so most of the photos I took were of blurred balls of fluff! We've let them in the sitting room with us this evening after the boys went to bed, and after a good old explore in every single nook and cranny that they can squeeze themselves into they have fallen fast asleep curled up on the sofa pressed up against me. I am definitely in love!
Our adoption of them has been bittersweet though. As those of you who I'm friends with in real life or on facebook will already know we lost my beautiful Millie cat on 19th November. It was horribly, horribly sudden. She spent the Thursday afternoon basking in the winter's sun on the roof of my workshed, keeping an eye on what my student was making. Friday morning she was quiet, but not unusually so considering she was 12, but by Friday tea time it was obvious that she was ill. T was taking the boys up to his Mum's for the weekend as I was teaching on Saturday, and after they left I took Millie to the vets. They found three tumours in her chest cavity, and said that we'd probably have a few months with her at best, but on Monday morning it was painfully clear that she'd had enough. I think she'd been hiding how ill she was until she couldn't cope anymore and it was time for her to go. It still makes me cry now just typing this, which is why there was no way I could write about it before, but she had a good life with all of us at her beck and call, and we were able to say goodbye to her. She's left me with plenty of good memories to smile about though - remember the climbing the bathroom wall incident?!
So, bringing the kittens home has reopened some barely healed wounds, but it's going to help heal them too. Our house has not felt complete since Millie died - and now it's full of two bouncy kittens and two equally bouncy boys getting up to mischief! Thankfully all four of them are getting used to each other already!
No matter how old or young, our lovely companions are fixed in our hearts, Jo. Those wounds are the result of our willingness to love and accept them on our journey here. I haven't yet any grand kids, but I refer to my kitties as my furry grandchildren! It is fabulous that you have welcomed into your family, two new felines who need you as much as you do them!
ReplyDeleteOh, they're so adorable! Utterly, utterly adorable!
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to hear about Millie. Last year we lost three kittens, all very sudden and shocking deaths, so I know how horrible it is to have something like that happen. It hurts so bad. (Thankfully, living in a multiple-cat home I've never had to experience that void of having no cats, though. Having just one cat it'd be even worse I suspect, with no other furry friends to turn to in your grief.) It often takes a cat to help heal the wounds after the death of a beloved cat and turn that pain and shock into fond memories.