It’s been just over three whole months since we adopted two kittens — 🐈Ben and Jimin🐈 — an energetic brother duo into our family of three. It feels bizarre to acknowledge the fact that they haven’t been that long in my life. They feel like they’ve always been around, like a permanent fixture, always adding colour to my days and zooming in between impossible crevices of our house.
Just like with my other cats I rescued or adopted; I want to dedicate a special post introducing these two rascals to my readers because I can’t just keep their 😍cuteness to myself. In fact, even as I’m typing this, Ben and Nana have already been giving me the paw patting and tail swishing in my face🤦♀️(literally!), hinting at me to tell this story. How I only wanted ONE kitten but somehow ended up with TWO. And how these troublemakers are settling in, adjusting to our routine, and even making friends with my older cat, Nana (who now willingly takes up the role of being their older sister).
From 1 to 3: Why I Welcomed Another Cat(s)
For two years, it’s just been me and Nana hanging out at home. Or with my husband out on walks with Nana in her cat stroller, with her tiny, dotted pupils glued to every bird and stray cat she spots. We had a comfy, easy-going life, but something always felt… off. Like something was missing.
I’d get this feeling when I was busy and Nana was just lounging around, looking a bit lonely. I thought she could use a playmate, and to be honest, I could use the company too. I’m already a cat-obsessed person but for a couple of months, I went down a rabbit hole of more cat videos and photos, cat adoption ads… I was totally convinced we needed another cat. My husband was a bit hesitant for a while, being the practical one. But he’s always supportive of me and Nana, so he eventually came around. Or maybe I overwhelmed him enough with the dozens and dozens of cat-related contents on social media I spammed his phone with that he thought, 🤦♂️’Fine, let’s just get her one’.
The bottom-line being, I was a bit lonely, and Nana seemed bored too. Whenever she sees a stray cat visiting her sunbathing spot by the window, her ears would perk up with interest. So, I thought maybe she’d enjoy having a playmate.
Searching for a Cat
My family and I have gotten into rescuing, fostering and recently with Nana, adopting cats into our family. We didn’t buy any of our cats. They quite literally fell into our lives like how Dessi was found in a dumpster, and Leo and Oden were literally dropped onto our doorsteps by their mom on one random day. We don’t even have to look for cats, they seem to find us on their own just fine.
Oden (left), Leo (middle) & Dessi (right)
After I got married and moved away, and we adopted Nana, we had a few 🔍options for getting another cat. First, we found a sparse population of strays in our own neighbourhood, and I had been friendly with a couple of potential candidates that could be my own. Second, there are tons of 💻FB groups that connect pet rescuers/fosters to the public and I so happened to almost exhaust the daily updates of new and old adoption ads, sifting through each one for “The One” cat. I didn’t have a specific preference for the kind of cat such as the breed, gender, etc., but as long as they would get along with Nana and able to vibe with us. And we really wanted to adopt locally.
The first option didn’t work out so well. We spent two nights walking around the neighbourhood, shining our phone lights into dark alleys, looking for stray cats. We tried coaxing a cute one-eyed blind 🐈⬛ black girly cat to get friendly with us, and she was happy to snack on our peace-offering treats. However, by the time we managed to get her inside our freshly cleaned temporary cat cage, she meowed on the top of her lungs, demanding for her sister to launch a rescue mission. We let her go, realising some cats here preferred the outdoor life even if they’re friendly with us.
Then, I started looking at those Facebook groups. I chatted with some of the rescuers and fosterers to find out about their cats and what they were looking for in an adopter. That’s when I saw a post of these two and they reminded me so much of Nana🤩. They looked like they came from the same parents, except that Nana has a greyer tinge to her coat. I was interested in Ben at first and immediately started a new chat with their fosterer to ask about him.
I learned they were a mix of local and Persian cats, and all three (mom included) were rescues looking for homes. I sent them pictures of the temporary cage I had for Ben, and the ‘Cat Room’ I set up with a litter box, food bowls, a cat tree (that Nana doesn’t use, it was expensive!), and toys. I explained how I would keep Ben in the cage for 2 weeks after adoption to get him settled in, defleaed and vaccinated, and then slowly introduce him to Nana by letting them see each other through a small crack in the door.
The fosterer was happy with my setup and future plans for Ben. We agreed on seeing how he would like his possible new home the following evening. I was so excited; I spruced up the cage again and added more toys, making sure nothing was amiss. Come the next day, the fosterer and her husband dropped by with a large carrier and inside were two kittens. She suggested that coming along as a duo would calm each other and that maybe I would open up to adopting them both.
I saw through her “trick”, but didn’t complain because truthfully, when I saw them sniffing around the cage as a pair, taking a turn around me and my husband, their soon-to-be hoomans, I just thought, ‘What if we could work this out after all?’ I didn’t consider once to adopt the two kittens together but seeing their bond, their tails intertwined fondly while they excitedly explored… I could not not adopt them as a duo. After much persuasion with my husband, we shook hands and agreed to them in. As Ben and Jimin.
Vet Appointments, Quarantine & Building a Bond
The cage, although was quite large even for an adult-sized cat, felt too snug for two active kittens. They were bouncing off the walls! I cleared the Cat Room in advance and had them moved in. They explored and did zoomies in every nook and cranny of this room. Even inside the litter box – don’t even get me started. Now that we have two kittens in our hands, we also had another job of telling them apart because together they looked almost identical. We noticed Ben has a little crooked tail, and Jimin has a totally black nose while Ben’s pink. Also funny to note that Jimin has an adorable small meow, whereas Ben’s almost non-existent. He whisper-meow, as I like to call it. To make things easier, we put different coloured collars on them. Special thanks😌to Nana and her generous collection of collars over the years. This would also help the vet to know who was who.
We had them visit the vet for checkup two days after they settled down. They were defleaed, ears cleaned from annoying ear mites, and Jimin was prescribed with flu medication. Overall, the boys were perfectly healthy and just needed to be kept separate from Nana for two weeks until we were sure they hadn’t caught anything else that could be passed on to her. Both were rewarded with😋delicious wet food of fish for being well-behaved patients.
Things went on like that for a couple of weeks and eventually, the boys finally had a 👀peek at Nana, their adopted older sister. First few encounters were not great especially on Nana’s side, which is to be expected because she hasn’t shared the same breathing space with another cat since she lived with her biological mom and brother. The two boys, however, were more 😮curious than hostile or confused about her. Weeks of anxiety on our part later, they broke the ice and started pouncing, chasing, snuggling, and playing fighting with each other.
Ben and Jimin also picked up a steady healthy weight gain since last November, much to their vet’s approval. Sometimes, I’d catch Ben running with his tummy pouch swinging or Jimin’s tummy sticking out after a meal 🤣. The cute aggression to keep myself in check has been difficult.
These days, the boys are doing great. They recently had their second dose of 💉vaccination and scheduled for a neuter appointment sometime later this month. Honestly, there’s never a truly boring day since the boys entered our lives. I’m truly grateful that they seem to prosper in our care and love Nana 🥹.
wanywhiskers.com 
Leave a comment