Ollie and Murray

Quite some time ago, a very crappy person dropped off 3 kittens at the end of my folks' long dirt driveway out in the country. The 2 sisters and brother made their way up the driveway and proceeded to live out in a small out-building near my folks' house. My mom fed them and tamed them, but with everything else going on for her lately, she didn't get around to getting them fixed. Both females had kittens at the same time. Joycie and my niece, Michelle, both helped my mom take care of the kittens. I can't remember how many kittens there were in total, but it was a lot. Both the momma cats treated all kittens the same, sharing the mothering duties. Joyce enjoyed that time with so many kittens; she was right in her element! Homes were found for all the kittens, including 1 to Michelle and 2 to us.

We got 2 brothers (or cousins, we truly don't know), the only tiger-striped of the litters and a black and white cutie, Murray and Ollie, respectively. The plan was to only get 1 kitten and have him live with N.C. and Frankie, our 2 outside cats (they live on our porch and keep the chipmunk population somewhat in control). Frankie is getting very old, so I thought we would put a kitten with them to have Frankie and N.C. train him.

But then somehow, being unable to decide between the 2 kittens, we took both.

This is Sam with the kittens on our trip home from Gramma's house. As you can see, Sam is pretty much overjoyed...





Blossom was not so much overjoyed as annoyed, but also curious, as was Wiley... and we were all amused at Kev actually holding Ollie on his chest...



Joyce worked with taming the kittens, and so Ollie and Murray are both used to being held, in pretty much any position. Ollie does seem to like perching on shoulders...



While Murray loves pretty much any position, including on his back...



Murray's stripes give way to spots on his belly, so cute...



This was Sunday evening a couple of weeks ago, and we had a vet appointment scheduled for them for the following Monday morning. We decided to keep them in the house overnight so they were easily accessible in the morning, and so we put them comfortably inside of the large crate that was Reilly's and is now infrequently used by Wiley. (Reilly loved it, Wiley not so much.)

Sunday dinner discussion at the table was a lot about Kevin adamantly insisting the 2 cats were NOT going to be kept inside. He got pretty loud and insistent about it. I just patted his arm and said "yes, dear." Sammy started to argue with him, but I stopped that.

Home from the vet and the kittens are, of course, still inside. They both slept with Sam last night. After a week or so, Kev just looked at me one evening, after Ollie had climbed up the back of the sofa and surfaced right above Kevin's head, and said, "They aren't going outside, are they?"

"No, dear, they aren't."

So our house has been overloaded with cuteness ever since. Reilly's old, somewhat ratty pillow bed was for some reason set on top of the dog crate, and now Ollie and Murray have claimed it for their own.






Being brothers (we're going with brothers), they stick together pretty much all the time. They do a lot of pretend fighting, too, but it's adorable. They do a LOT of sleeping, and that's really adorable. They've been with us only about 2 weeks, and they noticeably grow bigger daily. And since they seem to love Reilly's ratty pillow, it seems we're stuck with that in our living room now... but honestly, who's looking at the ratty pillow with these 2 on it?...













Sam and I went to PetSmart and loaded up on necessities for them, as well as some toys. As a result, Blossom is warming up to the kittens now since they all love the toys. Wiley still chases Blossom, but not as much because his chasing time is divided by 3 now. The kittens initially hissed whenever they got near him, but now they seem not only ok with Wiley, but curious about him. Also, I think they have discovered that Wiley is a source of warmth, so hopefully some majorly cute photos featuring Wiley, Ollie and Murray sometime in the not too distant future.

I posted the video below on facebook, but for my non-facebook friends and family, here is it is again - my friend, Megan, being adored by Murray...