Cuteness and Wondering if the house will survive

Ahhhhh, we all love kittens and puppies don't we? They're so cute and you just want to cuddle them to pieces don't you? Well, yes, they're cute, and fun and make you laugh, but they have their exasperating moments too.

Well, surviving multiple kittens in the house can be challenging! Up until I'd adopted Jasmine over a year ago now, it had been a very, very long time since I'd had a kitten in the house. I will say, she was fun and a careful kitten. She has never broken or purposely knocked things off while being a wild child.

HA! What was I thinking last June when I agreed to help out the Espanola Valley Shelter and foster some kittens for awhile? I think I must have been out of my mind some days. But honestly, I don't regret it for a moment. There have been a lot of laughs involved.

And while I did not intend to keep any of the kittens I fostered, well, I'll have to admit, there were two foster failures.

Meet Punkin and Binx. They both decided they needed to stay with me and the rest of the menagerie in the house. Cute and innocent looking right? Riiiiight..... While they have their absolute adorable moments and lovey dovey moments, there are also those moments of sheer exasperation. AND, don't forget, Jasmine is still technically a kitten!

Add to that a corgi that's still learning to be a puppy and play himself, and you get mayhem and then you wonder if the house will ever survive or be the same again!

It was great when they were small and had not learned about getting up onto the counters and all the potential delights that might be up there. And while Abby was able to keep them somewhat corralled. Now they're getting big fast and nothing is safe. And I will say it is startling the first few times Punkin discovered he could get up on the top shelf by my closet door over my head when I go into the closet and managing to scare the hell out of me when I come out, (I think he's pretending to be a bird of prey or some such) I wonder if I'll die young of heart failure.

Lets see.... to date I've lost a lamp, a ceramic piece I'd made when I was a kid, a couple dishes, loaves of gluten free bread that my roommate keeps leaving out on the counter, I have numerous ventilation holes all over my legs where they insist on climbing up me like a tree, tooth marked mail and papers, disappearing rubber bands, socks disappearing, hmmmmm, pretty much everything. OH! And trying to teach stubborn kittens what NO means with a squirt bottle feels like a losing battle some days!

Yeah, they look innocent and cute.... Methinks they're devils in cute clothes. And despite all that, I do love them to pieces as do the dogs. They both love the dogs and play with them or cuddle them. And they are always up to inventing new games with Brody. Hoo Boy!

Point in case, I almost got bounced out of bed last night! Last night was only the second night that Brody has decided to sleep with me. Usually at bed time, the kittens come upstairs with me and we play a little bit of cover critters (where you have your hand or foot under the thick covers and the kittens attack and chase them) for about 5 or 10 minutes, then we turn out the lights and hit the hay.

Well, last night it became a whole different game, and me and the bed quickly became an amusement park/obstacle course with 3 cats/kittens and one 30 lb corgi. Seems Brody thought it would be fun to join in the game and that, gee, this bed is fun and bouncy! So I got bounced on, run over, bounced almost out of bed, and a wet nose in the ear when I replied with "OOF"! Took about 20 minutes for them to wear themselves out and finally snuggle up for sleep. Yes it was cold in these parts last night, and everyone decided mom is a portable heat pack.

I often wonder if the house will survive kitten hood. At least the boys aren't like Jasmine and think the plants are for their personal jungle stalking vantage points. So the plants might survive this round, but the chairs and couch have all been scaled so much now, things knocked off, papers all over when I get home, things dragged downstairs that I thought should stay upstairs, who knows?

At least with all the painting lately that I've been doing, the kittens aren't the ones wearing paint, it always seems to be Brody from brushing up against it while it's wet. And I think every week when I vacuum that I must collect enough hair to make more critters. But for all this, I have a fun and happy house with laughter in it and I love coming home to them!

I mean, come on, who wouldn't feel something looking at this? :)