Welcome to the Nut House: Tuesday, January 10th-Bring on the kitties....

Jake's been wanting a kitten for years. I think he's been asking since Christmas 2007, when we were going into Rays and there was someone giving away kittens. I thought once I moved out and got my own place I'd get Jake a cat, then I met Brett. He and Josey have cat allergies, so I had to tell Jake no kitties. Fast forward to a few weeks ago. The neighbor's cat started showing up at our back door. Big, fat, fluffy Smokey. We started petting her, giving her treats, etc. She started showing up at our door daily. Brett started softening on the whole cat thing, then Josey decided maybe she wasn't THAT allergic, and she could handle a cat. I told her if she got a cat, I'd have to get one for Jake, because I promised him years ago he could get one. The other night, Josey and I finally got Brett to say yes. I went on the grand search for 2 kittens, preferably female (I know there's technically nothing wrong with a fixed male, but I've ALWAYS had issues with boy cats spraying, even when they're fixed, and even if they get fixed young enough, so as a rule, I stick with females). We were going to go to the Humane Society after school today, when Liv's preschool teacher told me that one of the volunteers, Grandma Roberts, had 4 kittens to get rid of-They had a lot going for them. They were litter trained, fixed, and FREE. 3 of my favorite things lol. It worked out that the two females were short haired, so we met Grandma Roberts at the school and picked up our 2 new kitties. Jake and Liv have a brown, orange, and white (calico) mix they named Pikachu. Josey's cat is grey and orange and she named her Banshee. This is where the fun begins. We brought both cats home and opened the carrier. They both popped out and promptly walked the house, meowing. Jake and Liv had no idea what to do. I was attempting to tell them to calm down (the kids, not the cats lol). I put them both near the litter box so they'd know where it was at (the cats not the kids LOL). Both cats went in different directions. I'm looking at Pikachu and out of the corner of my eye, I see Banshee-then, she's gone! I can't figure out where in the heck she went. She was in the corner of the kitchen, then literally, like Houdini, she was gone. I got on my hands and knees and realized that there was a tiny little opening where the corners meet between the drawers and the cupboard-she crawled thru there! GAH! So, I take the molding off in order to see what the deal is. I get down and notice it's worse than I thought. There's about a 5-6 inch gap that leads down between the cupboard and drawers and at the end of THAT is an opening on either side about 3 inches. Yep, she's crawled into one of those holes. She totally refuses to come out. Brett gets home, and he's attempting to help. We finally decide maybe if we drill one hole, we'll be able to stick a hanger in there and nudge her out. No dice. It's totally fitting that Banshee is Josey's, because she is S.T.U.B.B.O.R.N. Seriously...wouldn't budge. Brett and I are pushing the hanger in, she's not going ANYWHERE, and if we got her to move, she'd just saunter over into another corner of the cupboard so we couldn't move her. Finally Brett had to break out his big work drill, drill several holes big enough for me to fit my hand in so I could reach in and get her. Let me tell you, in my kitchen now, it looks ridiculous because I stuffed rags in those holes. The rags WILL NOT go anywhere until those cats are big enough that they can not get thru those holes. We'll probably figure something else out, but in the mean time, the rags suffice. Let me just add, Banshee also managed to crawl UP INTO THE COUCH tonight. I wasn't going to do anything to my expensive couch to get her funky butt out, so I went in the hard way. Oh well. Soon she will be too big. I can't wait lol. As a side note, Pikachu is adjusting nicely. She's been out and playing. The littles (and Josey, too though I'm not sure she'd admit it) totally dig her.