A Tale of Two Kitties

It was the best of times, it was the - sorry, wrong tale.
On 21 December,  a shoe box containing four kittens, barely five weeks old, was dumped in a driveway. No judgement. Our friend rang Rowland as she knew we were needing a cat, our home being without one for the first time in about 40 years. .
I was sent to choose. A foolish idea. Three boys and a girl, not being at all sexist I declared that I only wanted a female, boys can be naughty you know. She gave a tiny meeow and snuggled in when I lifted her out of the (copy paper ) box.
"O.K. we would love to give this sweet thing a good home, I'll be going now".
Oh but, "just look at that sweet face, such big eyes, so adorable"
Which is why we have two kittens, Alice and Tom and they are so gosh darned cute.
You don't just "get" a cat, well we don't anyway. Off to the vet we went for a check up, deworming and de fleaing, a basket, two free sample sets of kitten food, kitty litter and I was on my way.
For the first three days our new babies came to work with us, we made a tiny playroom for them and a discreet area to hold the sandbox. After eating I would pop each one into the box, scratch the paws through the sand to send the right message and so far we have two very well behaved children.
What a joy to watch, it's rather like having new babies but not nearly as much work. The timing is right, the (human) children are all grown up (and some), the grandchildren are wonderful but it's kinda nice to watch babies grow up once again.
It's an education in observation, Alice and Tom started out in one tiny area of the house, not locked in by us but restricted to what they were able to cope with at the time, slowly the horizons became bigger, currently they're at the stage where they bravely play outside in the garden but will still come charging inside to use the sandbox. Sweetypies.
We're not the only ones fascinated by these tiny bundles, Daisy and Zoe couldn't believe their eyes when two fluffy toys were dumped on the floor, Zoe ( a Yorkie) followed silently and still sneaks in to see if they're still around. Daisy (Spaniel) seems to have shed a couple of years and allows them to walk between her front legs, rubbing up as cats do. She's showing amazing restraint where the food bowls are concerned, cleaning our (the sadly deceased) Amber's bowl was one of her fun things to do. I'm pretty certain Merlin thinks the kittens are wind-up toys, boy is he in for a shock.
At food time I find the two of them sitting patiently in the empty spot where the food bowls should be, play time after eating and then its time to snuggle the humans, purr as loudly as possible and just relax.
Thanks to the person who felt she had to dump those babies, the other two kittens found homes the same day and we'll all be having our companions spayed (no, not the human ones) as soon as we can.
So here's to Alice and Tom, new companions for a new year, I hope they enjoy 2012 as much as we intend to and I hope that you and yours have an outstanding year, happy, healthy and if it should be so, wealthy and wise..