The first 'barn' cats...

Horse update in a minute, but first I want to take a minute to write a personal update.

On my way to my last final exam of the semester, I walked my usual route through the classroom buildings.  I passed a bush and had to do a double-take.  Sure enough, there were kittens hanging out in the middle of the mulch, looking around, being kittens.  I walked towards them and they scattered.  I was really puzzled, looked around for a few minutes and saw them again.  I called my friend Dom (who seems to be the go-to for most things!) and asked her if she had a place I could put a few kittens.  She said I could probably bring them in to the clinic/shelter she works with, if I could catch them.  I went off to take my final, wondering if kittens would still be there by the time I finished.

After the exam, I gathered a few other friends and a big paper box and started searching through bushes.  An hour after we started, the search party dwindled to myself and Jason.  At one point, once we combed through the entire section of bushes, Jason was convinced the kittens had been moved.  Just as we were about to give up, we found a hole in the ground.  Both of us were afraid to just reach in, expecting it to be anything but a hole of kittens, so I put my ultra-tough phone to the test and snapped a few pictures.

In one of the pictures, we saw a little black and white face staring right into the camera.  Bingo, kitten hole.  To lure them out, we put out some tuna, and soon Jason and I had two frightened kittens hanging out in a rubbermaid container back in my room.  The black and white kitten, once caught, seemed to accept her fate and completely calmed down.  The gray, however, decided to try and fight his way out of everything.  First, the box.  Then, the bathtub.  Then, the rubbermaid container.  He looked damned cute doing it, though, and so I named him Liam Neeson.  Jason named the little girl Parmesan, and thus lost all future naming rights to anything.


We've had them for a little over a week now, and while the plan had been to find them homes, it's looking more and more like Jason and I now have two kittens.  Do we need two kittens?  Absolutely not.  Should we have two kittens?  Probably not.  But we are in the process of finagling and working to be able to keep them in our apartment next year.

In the meantime, we got the kittens fixed and up to date on their shots, plus we got them dewormed.  They've gotten a bath and are now fattening up on top of the line dry and wet food, and have a ton of toys and scratchers to play with.  They are becoming very social, and allowing us to clip their nails and fuss with them in general.

Liam is still very protective of his sister, who is much smaller than he is.  He always allows her to eat first, and when we have her out of their area, he chirps and cries to her.  He's getting better, but for the first few days he'd always sleep with his paws around her, like the little tough kitten that he thinks he is.


I really had no intention of keeping them, but they are such good kittens and such gorgeous kittens that it is going to be hard to let them go to another home.  I do really hope we are able to keep them.