Setting up the Cat Room

After the first day of keeping our newly-adopted kittens in our master bathroom, I realized they needed a larger place to play and sleep. (Also, I wasn't too crazy about keeping their food and litter box in our bathroom.)

I wasn't ready to let them out into the house yet: the kids were still nervous around our new kittens, and our kittens needed a place to feel safe and settle in.

Luckily, we had a sitting room with our master bedroom. The sitting room was a fair-sized room with glass doors, big bright windows, and french doors out to a balcony (which we never use, but it offers a beautiful view of the sunrise over the mountains.)

So I bought some kitten supplies to set up our new "cat room." Here's what I bought:

- Cat tree with scratching post and feather toy (they slept here together every night)

- Food bowls and place mat (I added another food dish later, but they still preferred to eat from the same bowl)

- Covered litter box and mat (that's Rose in there--hi Rose!)

- Cat carrier and baby blanket (they shared this one when they were little kittens)

- Cat bed (they never actually slept here, but they liked to jump on it and drag it around)

- Dry cat food (I tried Blue Buffalo, Wellness, and Science Diet, but our picky kittens preferred the Royal Canin Kitten 36 Formula)

- Canned cat food (the kittens loved the Blue Buffalo and Wellness kitten dinners, but Rose threw up when I tried Natural Choice--yuck, so I went back to their favorites)

- Kitty litter (I started with Fresh Step, but soon found out I was really allergic to it--ugh, so I tried a variety of litters before switching to World's Best Cat Litter, which is awesome--no dust, no smell, and easy to clean up)

- Litter Genie (cat litter disposal system, which works like a diaper genie to store "used" litter until garbage day)

- Cat cleaning products (already had Kids N Pets, but didn't work well for cat vomit, then tried Nature's Miracle, which worked much better!)

I also bought a variety of cat toys, which I will review in my next post.

Kitten Adoption Day!

Saturday, March 23rd. A beautiful day to adopt kittens.

We were on our way to the local pet shop. I called ahead, and found out that 12 week old kittens would be available for adoption today. We entered the parking lot just after the shop opened, and raced into the shop almost before the car stopped.

The kittens were displayed center-stage. A few buyers were already sticking their fingers in the cage and cooing at the kittens. I beelined it straight for the kitten cage.

There were three of them: two tabby females (who had just been fixed and had shaved tummies) and one black male. One of the tabbies was batting at everyone's fingers, seemingly friendly and outgoing. The other tabby was snuggled into the clean litter box with the black male at the back of the cage.

I listened to the adoption guy explain that the tabbies were litter mates and he'd prefer to keep them together, but the buyers were reluctant to buy two kittens. They started to discuss the black kitten instead. That was my chance to step up.

"I'll like to adopt both tabby kittens, please." The adoption guy looked me over and asked me a bunch of questions to make sure I'd be a good owner. I guess he was happy with my answers, because an hour later (and $300 poorer), I left the store with two adorable tabby kittens, cat carrier, bedding, food stuff, litter stuff, and assorted cat toys.

We took the kittens straight home and set them up in our master suite bathroom for their first day. We named them: Rose (brown nose with a black M on her forehead) and Pearl (white nose with a white M on her forehead.) Rose had a sweet, shy, cuddly personality. Pearl was the outgoing one, the first to explore and get into trouble.

Rose and Pearl were inseparable those first days, sleeping together, eating together, and following each other around. In fact, if one was separated from the other, they would meow until they found each other again.

This was just the beginning of Rose and Pearl's feline adventures together...