A Course In Miracles: Tiger and Lilly

We've discussed adopting a kitten since we discontinued our daycare arrangement with the Andersons in August. More recently, we've spent considerable time researching kittens on Petfinder.com. Adam has made countless phone inquiries, tirelessly searching for the right kitten for our family. In these discussions with foster parents, it became clear that we weren't going to be able to adopt a kitten without taking two, as the process for adopting animals is surprisingly arbitrary and complex. The idea of two kittens eventually grew on us, because we assume we will experience less guilt leaving them at home during our countless out of town weekend adventures.

I called Adam after my yoga class on Saturday morning and asked how Nolan was handling his fever during Collin and Aaron's tennis lessons at LFT. Instead of going to pick Nolan up at LFT, as planned, Adam encouraged me to drive down to the PetSmart in Apple Valley to meet the kittens we had seen on Petfinder.com the previous evening. Adam had inquired with "Suzanne", the foster mom, earlier in the week, but she had dismissed us because we had a house full of children under 6. I immediately fell in love with these two kittens, and luckily, Suzanne "liked my aura." Shortly after lunch, I walked in our house with two 10-week old kittens named Christian and Elsa.

Within minutes of bringing them home, Collin developed a rash on his forearm that required a dose of Benadryl. The kittens bonded immediately with the boys and comfortably slept in Aaron's bed on Saturday night. The kittens awoke a little after 11 and began wrestling on his bed. Aaron looked at me, exasperated, and asked, "How long do you think they're going to do this?"

We left them alone for an hour on Sunday morning while we attended church. In that short amount of time, they managed to break a picture frame, leaving broken glass on the back hall stairs.

We had many discussions about potential names, which coincidentally have continued even after we established a consensus. Collin offered "Angel" as a name for the "girl cat", because she is such a sweet kitty. Aaron countered with, "Angel Lilly". While buckling him into his car seat on Monday morning for preschool, Aaron informed me that he wanted to name the "girl kitty Wonder Woman and the boy kitty Batman." Since then Batman has been upgraded to "Superman". Nolan walks around calling them, "meow, meows".

Tiger and Lilly, are visually indistinguishable buff colored tabbies, who were born on November 19, 2010. The only physical difference is their size; Tiger's head is just slightly larger than Lilly's. Their personalities set them apart. Tiger immediately bonded with Collin, even though Collin continually requested to hold the "girl kitty." Lilly meticulously grooms (harshly licks) whoever is touching her before she goes to bed, and likes to sleep on faces. Tiger is very possessive of his food; mealtime is the only time we have ever heard him growl. They both purr whenever anyone pets them, and they are very friendly, loving, and playful. The two of them fit right into our family, spending the majority of their playtime wrestling with each other.

Playing with Gabby's old toys