Some of you may remember that our beloved 4-year-old kitty Violet got sick and died suddenly last fall. Then, this spring, our old-lady cat Grace died at age 16. That left only Luna, Violet's littermate. She has always been a very affectionate, playful cat, and we felt bad that she was all alone. We decided that she (and we) could use some kittens to play with! The problem was that we couldn't find any adoptable kittens around here; the local shelters and other organizations have been so effective at getting the word out about spaying that there just aren't as many litters as there used to be. (This is a good thing!) I finally tracked down someone who was fostering three litters about an hour or so away, almost in Rhode Island, and we were one of 150 (!) applicants to adopt. We got first dibs because we were willing to take two, own our own home, have had cats for many years, and so on.
So off we all went to meet the 17 tiny kittens (all just about 2 months old). They and their moms were all in a giant sunroom, just running around and playing and napping. It was almost unbearably fun to be surrounded by all that cuteness, and in fact the woman had to finally ask us politely to leave. It was hard to choose, because they all looked pretty similar and some of them were sound asleep the whole time we were there. But we finally chose two who seemed very playful and not skittish, and they turned out to be littermates, which was what we wanted anyhow. We had to wait another couple of weeks for them to weigh enough to get their shots and their spay/neuter surgeries, and then we loaded them into a carrier for the long, scary ride to their Forever Home:
It took us a couple of weeks to name them. We had this ridiculously complicated process whereby everyone in the family got to make suggestions and could veto others, and there was passing around of slips of paper and crossing out names and rethinking everything overnight ... and we at last arrived at Calvin and Phoebe:
So, everything is swell, right? Well, not so fast. It turns out that Luna does not want any tiny kittens to play with, thank you very much, not even a little bit. In fact, it appears that she would like to kill them. We have done everything you're supposed to do, and everything we've done that has worked well over the years when we've introduced new kittens to an existing cat. We first locked the kittens in our master bedroom suite (it's actually pretty big, with a bedroom, walk-in closet, small hallway, and bathroom) so that they could get used to their new home, and particularly the scent of Luna all over that room. Then we blocked them off just in the bathroom and let Luna come into the bedroom and sniff around. Then we made our introductions, and man, Luna was not happy—lots of hissing and growling. This had happened before—Grace had done the same with Luna 5 years ago!—so we figured it would just take time. But it's been a month and still, every time we let the kittens out to explore, Luna charges at them and even swats at them! (I should mention here that Luna is, well, obese, and the kittens weigh not even 3 pounds each.) So now we have been keeping them apart, with only supervised interactions. The kittens sleep in our room overnight, and Luna has the run of the house all evening/night and in the morning and gets plenty of loving from us. Then, in the afternoon Luna gets locked in the basement (where she spends a fair amount of time anyhow—it's finished and she has a favorite chair down there) while the kitties run around and explore. Then, once or twice during the day or evening, we let them be together when we can keep a close watch on them. The interactions have not gotten any better, and we are at a loss. We are hoping it's just going to take more time.
We are loving these two, though! They are really cute and sweet and playful:
(Darn, I keep trying to upload a video of them playing with Andy's shoelaces, but it doesn't seem to load!)
Ah well, here's a photo of them sleeping all snuggled up:
Lucky they are so cute, because they really love to "help" me work: