As you probably know from reading this blog, we sadly lost our beloved 18 year old cat Scout earlier this year. I knew that I wanted to get new cats after she died. Originally I was thinking that it might be good to get cats that were a couple of years old and weren’t as crazy as tiny kittens since we were used to having a senior cat who didn’t do anything but eat and sleep. I also knew I wanted to get them very shortly after we returned from our vacation to Hilton Head because I figured that would give us 6-7 weeks to get them acclimated to living with us before we went on vacation again. Otherwise I decided we probably needed to wait until August when all our long summer vacations were over.

I started scouring cats on Petfinder. Shortly before we left on vacation I applied for some cats that were about a year old and was approved, but they said they wouldn’t hold them for me until after our vacation and someone else adopted them in the meantime. At the end of our vacation I put in an application for some cats that were 2 years old, got approved, and arranged to see them the day after we got back. Despite the foster mom claiming that they were very sweet, they were older feral rescues who definitely still seemed pretty feral. It did not help that there were a million other cats in that house some of which she admitted were still feral and that she was trying to find barn placements for. Those cats were definitely not right for us, and I kind of hated that whole situation. After that I decided maybe we did just want to go with kittens so that we could socialize them from when they were tiny.

Our last cats we got at the Maryland SPCA which is a couple of blocks from our house. So we went by there last Monday, but they didn’t have any kittens at all. My friend who fosters kittens had a litter, but they were long-haired and we only wanted short-haired cats. She also told me what I already knew, which is that kitten season doesn’t really get into full swing until end of May/beginning of June so we were just slightly too early to have a large selection. Luckily Monday night, I spotted two new kittens up on Petfinder and immediately put an application in for them. We got approved on Tuesday and arranged to go meet and most likely adopt them on Wednesday.

A mom and her litter of 4 kittens were found hiding on a porch and taken into foster care. The foster mom who had them got them on St. Patrick’s Day so she gave them all Irish names. Two of the kittens had already been adopted out. The remaining ones were a little boy and girl named Patrick and Molly. We brought them home that night, and now they are a part of the family. It’s hard to believe that it’s only been a week since we got them.

We decided we liked Molly’s name for her, but we weren’t keen on Patrick including because it seemed weird that our good friends’ kid is named that. It took us a few days to agree on a name for him, but ultimately we decided on Loki. I think it very much suits him. He’s mischievous and likes to harass his sibling. Also, he has these really big ears that remind me of the horned helmet thing that Loki wears.

They are super adorable and also crazy and maddening at times. Even though we’re feeding them the same dry food they had at their foster home, they have now turned their noses up at it because they only want to eat the wet food we gave them. If I mix them together they’ll eat the dry until they get down to pieces where they’ve eaten all the wet food from around them. My husband tried a new food today that they seem to finally have eaten. Also, I was mean and just refused to give them any wet food this morning hoping that they would eventually cave. They both sniffed at the dry food and stared at my in disbelief and walked away. Loki even cried because there was no wet food. I’m happy to give them some wet food, but it’s way expensive to only feed them that, plus it makes dealing with cat sitting much more difficult because it doesn’t stay good for that long once it’s out and their little kitty tummies can only handle so much food at one time.

Also, I am going crazy trying to train them to scratch where I want them to. We never had this problem with our old cats. We just showed them and they just went right for the scratchers we provided. We never had a problem with them scratching in inappropriate places. That is all Molly and Loki want to do despite the fact that we have provided them with every scratching surface known to man. They have carpet, rope, and cardboard. They have flat surfaces, vertical surfaces, diagonal surfaces, and even a curved surface. They do not want to scratch on any of them. They only want to scratch on our rugs and the door frame. None of those are acceptable. I keep trying to follow behavior modification suggestions, but it’s very hard and isn’t working. I have covered every surface I want them to scratch on in cat nip. I redirect them when they’re scratching to where I want them to scratch, but they don’t seem to get it. And the few times I’ve caught them scratching somewhere I want them to I haven’t been able to get a treat quick enough to reward them. Even if I have it on hand when I step toward them they run away and I can’t give it to them. I hope we can solve it. We only have throw rugs, so we’re picking them all up to remove the temptation, but that doesn’t help the door frame issue. I guess we just need to keep all the doors closed too to block them off.

Despite the challenges, I love them so much. They currently have two speeds bouncing off the walls crazy and zooming through house non-stop or dead to the world asleep. They already have their little personalities. Molly is very nosy and into everything and always wants to know what you’re doing. She’s the leader in most situations, and he chases her wherever she’s going and cries if he doesn’t know where she is. He’s much more vocal than she is. Molly is also the cuddlier one. She will curl up and go to sleep in my lap and follows me around. I don’t think Loki is going to be much of a lap cat, but he has come to me a couple of times and demanded scritches. Even though he’s more of the follower, he’s also a bit of a bully. He pushes her out of the way of food and toys. He also tends to stay energetic longer than she does, so she’ll be trying to sleep and he won’t have it. His immediate instinct is to bite her right in the neck to wake her up. They do love each other though. They sleep curled up, and don’t generally spend any time apart. They love to play with each other. It’s why we got two kittens instead of just one. I think it’s good for them to have a buddy. We did adopt two kittens when we got Scout, but unfortunately Charlotte died when she was only 9, so Scout lived half her life as a solo cat. Hopefully Molly and Loki will have each other for a good long time. I also look forward to having them in my life for hopefully the next 20 years or so.