It's like Christmas around here!

Time to introduce our new felines to blogdom.

This little guy: We meet him at the Utah Humane Society a few days before we put Tigs down. I fell in love with him; Bernie fell in love with the other orange guy peeking behind him.
We didn't adopt them then; we were still debating if we should try to adopt kittens or adopt adult cats; cats that need a second chance.
Three of our favorite cats were adult adoptions, but we suspected that Hart would have a very hard time sharing his world with adults.

Right after we said good bye to Tigs, we drove to the Humane Society to ease the pain by cuddling some of the cats. The little guy Bernie liked had already been adopted by a couple; my little heart throb had a "kitty cold" and was back in foster care.

A day or so later...we went to the Petsmart near our house to see if some cats that we had admired earlier were still available for adoption. They were...and after holding this young blue point Siamese female, who had been hand raised on a bottle, I knew I had found a wonderful cat.

(But I still wanted an orange cat...)

(Check out those whiskers!)

While I was falling in love with the blue point, Bernie was falling in love with this lynx point siamese "wide body". She was released by a family facing a medical crisis, and the foster family said "Frenchie" was their absolute favorite. Frenchie followed everyone in their family around, and allow children to play with her. Bernie held her while all around us swirled kids, cat carriers, kennels being slammed...and Frenchie didn't even bat an eye. She looked up into Bernie's eyes and just purred and relaxed.

That settled it. I had the little Siamese baby girl wrapped around my neck purring; we switched cats and decided these two would be purr-fect. (As I am typing this, the little girl is walking on my shoulders, checking out what I am typing as if she wants to make sure I am reporting the fact right.)

Frenchie originally was named Emma...the foster family decided she was Frenchie. She snores and has a hoarse meow, and white gloves. Age five, and an arm load of love!

We brought the two girls home and two days later Bernie had to be in South Carolina for a week.

It was up to me to integrate the cat family.

Frenchie and the little girl were locked up together in our wine/library room.

Frenchie let "Bitsy" know that SHE was in charge.

I held Bitsy and let her purr and sleep on me.

The day after Bernie left, I went back to the Humane Society to adopt my orange boy.

The adoption papers had a lot of questions which I answered easily, right up until I reached the one that asked:

Does every member of your household know that you are adopting this cat?

Er....not exactly.

It was late back on the east coast, but I called Bernie anyway.

"I'm at the Humane Society and I want to adopt the orange kitten. Is that OK with you?"

He was kind of stunned...then said "Oh what the heck!"

I came home with my baby orange boy.

I put him down on the floor of the wine/library room and he IMMEDIATELY took off like a shot, chasing a little cat toy like he had lived here forever.

His foster mom had said he was the sweetest kitten she had ever fostered. I think she was telling the truth.
Oh and the people at the Humane Society told me that he had marched up under the muzzle of a German Shepherd about to chow down. The "boy" wrapped his tail around the dog's mouth and dug into the food himself!

Well, Bitsy ran up to join him. It was like two kids hooking up on a playground! The kitty toys were flying!
Frenchie had a "oh my gawd" look and turned her back to the whole celebration.

I decided to call the boy "Tate"...and he wasted no time in getting hissed at by Frenchie, but held his ground and gave her tail a swat just to let her know she wasn't the boss of him!

So Bitsy Blue Eyes is ever so beautiful and sleeps with her paw wrapped around my forearm.
She will likely be renamed as she is growing very, very quickly.
Since she looks so much like my grandkitty Cessa, we are thinking of calling her CJ, for Cessa Junior.
(Plus a very nice librarian that I used to work for went by CJ...Carolyn Jacobson....Carolyn would also be a nice name for her.)

(I wish she would just tell me what she'd liked to be called. Her foster mom named her Madeira...I just don't think that suits her.)

Emma suits her...as does Frenchie.

Hart is having a hard time with Frenchie. She wants to be alpha cat. He currently has a broken meower; perhaps sore throat from hissing at the babies? (Now Tate is on my lap watching the words appear on the screen..)

CJ? Carolyn? Bitsy? Mostly I just call her and the rest of them "Sweetie" because I can't remember their names!

She loves watching NCIS! Smart girl!

Tate (or Zack, or maybe Owen or ???? Just not Mr. Socks, his foster name) loves to nap on me. It is just adorable!

He has taken up bird watching.

I believe that is an Oregon Towhee.

The three new ones sleep with us. Sadly Tigs and Hart used to own the lower left corner of the bed; Hart is not game to sleep with Frenchie.

So in the morning I let him out on the deck....

And we have a special cuddle time together. Hart is eight years old now, and we used to always call him Baby Hart.
Now he is called Old Hart.

Seasons of life...change is constant. I stare at Mt. Olympus, now orange, knowing it will soon be white, then green then orange again...

Each cat is staking claim to their own "spots" in the house.

(See how little he is? He is going to be growing fast though.)p;[

He is fearless. Neighbor cat Missy came to the sliding glass door and Hart came by to make sure she didn't get to come in.

Hart has his perch next to Bernie's desk where he can keep track of all goings on in the garden.

The Boy decided more drastic measures were in order.

Just because Missy probably outweighs him 3 to one is no reason not to stand your ground.

Swat through the glass...let that cat know what is what around here!
(Missy kept looking through all our windows, like "Hey, why didn't you just adopt me? I'm over here all the time anyway!)

Hart is doing OK with the "kids".

I have noticed over the years that Hart has finally gotten the knack of posing for attention when needed.

Our handsome gray tuxedo cat, who misses Tigs and wonders what has happened to his routine.

So that is our "little" cat family.

Eventually we will settle in to names, or just give up and keep calling them all Sweetie.

I think I am going a tad senile.

I'm starting to call EVERYONE Sweetie now days!