One new feature will spotlight a budding writer in our home--the one and only Deston Lang. He'll be writing a monthly book review featuring books from his personal collection. He's an incredible reader--voracious, curious, and diverse. If you'll indulge me in a little bragging, at the age of 11, he's reading at a 12th grade level! As a lifelong reader myself, I'm so chuffed that he has such a strong, personal connection with reading and books. This feature is also an opportunity for him to build his writing skills and work on his planning and organization. Look out for his first review later this month! He and I would both love your feedback and comments. We hope you'll share his reviews if you feel inspired.
Now to the big announcement! We adopted two kittens!! The Langs are proud to introduce Otis and Mitchell, brothers from a litter of 4. They're named after two of my favorite musicians--Otis Redding and Joni Mitchell (Yes, I reserved exclusive naming rights! Andrew wanted to name them Ruffy and Tuffy--after two minor characters from the movie Rockers).
 |
| Otis! |
 |
| Mitchell! |
Andrew and I had both been hankering for a kitten for a few months. After we lost Mixie we knew we weren't ready for a new pet right away. Then, gradually, watching cute kitten videos turned into thinking it would be really great to have one of our own. A woman I follow on Twitter posted pictures of a litter of kittens living outside at her mother's house. The reaction I had to these pictures went beyond just the usual "aw, aren't they cute!" feeling. I felt a physical yearning. I was ready. I discovered Andrew was ready too. He has a friend in Philly who fosters stray cats; this guy and his girlfriend both work with animals and do a lot of good. A mama cat and her newborn litter came to them and Andrew started talking to him about the possibility of adoption. We've always thought that the next time we were ready to adopt, we'd get a pair of siblings. We've dealt with many stressful situations where our adult cats were not getting along. We like the idea of the built-in camaraderie that comes with getting a sibling pair. It turned out that there were three boys and one girl in the litter. We decided we'd take two brothers. Enter Otis and Mitchell!
The politically-induced stress of this past year has left me needing positivity and relief. Otis and Mitchell are an opportunity for our family to welcome two new members and revel in the love, fun, and mayhem of having baby animals around! It's an opportunity for Deston and Lucinda to bond with cats that they'll have a big hand in raising. They will learn how to scoop the litter box and deal with kitten scratches and train cats to use a scratching post. I'm really excited for all of us. We decided to surprise the kids with the kittens as an early Christmas present. We successfully kept it a secret for over a month. Believe me, it was a challenge not to blurt it out.
With luck, having these kittens will also help my children do a better job of putting their toys away. Maybe having Otis and Mitchell co-opt their small toys will inspire some motivation to put them away ...
We're only a few hours into having Otis and Mitchell home with us and Irie's dominant reaction is bewilderment. He's been sniffing the kittens and is doing rounds of sniffing the apartment where the kittens have been. He's hissed twice, but is not being aggressive with them. We're going to try and maintain Irie's routine as much as we can. No doubt he's feeling pretty unsettled by having these two tiny kittehs in his home.
Wish us all luck as we adjust to our new, bigger family.
 |
| Irie sniffs Mitchell |
 |
| Mitchell is chill and very cuddly. |
 |
| Otis is playful and curious. |
No comments:
Post a Comment