Hello! This is Rob & Margaret. We wanted to give you an update on the three adoptions we made a month ago on Nov. 9, 2008. First, the kittens are doing wonderfully. Kyle we renamed to Dora, either short for Dora the Explorer, Adorable, or Isadora. Irene is now Honey because she’s the color of honey & short for Honeysuckle because she still suckles on her sister occasionally. They came home with a little cold, but are all recovered now and zooming around the house, chasing & wrestling with each other, us, all their toys, and Cliff. They are SOOOO adorably cute and this past month has just been PACKED full of hilarious antics and sweet moments. They have such different personalities, it’s really amazing they came from the same litter.

The only downside of course is that they’re growing and they won’t stay tiny forever. :o( We weighed them yesterday on their 4 mo. birthday and they are at 3 lb. 11 oz. & 4 lb. 3 oz. Dora has grown over a pound & Honey a pound and a half since we got them!

Finally, Cliff…he is just amazing; he has come light-years from when we got him. He still has his moments of being overly frightened when you come up to him–usually only when he’s fully awake, and he is almost always nervous close to people–but we’ve been able to get him to the point where he actually enjoys being petted in his little cat bed, which is his safe spot where he runs to when he’s scared. He actually closes his eyes, gets into it, and pushes back while kneading the air a little sometimes. He even allows us to pet him while he’s eating without too much trepidation!

We haven’t really been able to get him to purr at all, but he certainly isn’t afraid to use his voice or wander around the house. He is a loud and constant meower. It isn’t too bad at night, but we’re getting used to it. We bought a Feliway plug-in to hopefully ease his anxiety a bit. Most other times, even with loud noises & lots of movement around him, he seems perfectly content and will sit there slowly blinking and looking around. Oh, and we’ve gotten him to PLAY! He LOVES chasing the laser pointer and the dangly-string-attachments-on-a-stick toy! He even forgets himself and runs within a few feet of us before realizing how close he is to a human and scampering back under the table to swat at it again. It’s so great to see some of that kitten come out of the poor boy who I’m sure didn’t get that experience down in New Orleans when he was growing up.

We’re also very happy that he gets along so incredibly well with the kittens. He tolerates it for a short time when they want to sleep with him, they chase each other around a bit at night, and we’ve even caught him wrestling with Dora a couple times! Only the occasional hiss when one of the kittens inadvertently violates his personal space a little too much.

It was tough sorting through the couple hundred pictures we have, but attached is our best picture of Cliff and a few obligatory cute kitten pictures. Enjoy! :o)

Thank you so very much for the opportunity to adopt Cliff, Dora, and Honey! I sure hope the spots we opened up in your shelter allow more wonderful kitties to find their new families! – Rob & Margaret