Eliot & Benjamin

So this decision had three factors. 1- I want our children to experience pet ownership. It was such an important part of my growing up. Given our lack of a backyard and Jared's aversion to dogs, a cat seemed the next best option. 2- Over the past 7 years of living in our house, we have had several rounds of mice deciding to join our family. The last round was a month ago. Supposedly the scent of a cat along can encourage them to move on to another home, so it's worth a shot. 3- For a very long time Eliot's dream has been to own a cat.

However, I have lots of animal allergies and cats are one of my strongest. I am pretty sure both my boys inherited some of this allergy. So we went the route of helping the local shelter through their fostering system. We commit to helping them find permanent homes for these guys while giving mama a nice space to feed her babies. We'll have them for at least a month while the kitties get bigger. Then they can be adopted out. If the allergies can be contained in a livable manner, then we will keep mama. She is a sweetheart and I'm already fond of her.

Eliot has named one kitty Scratcher. Benjamin tried to pass his favorite word (Poopy) for the second kitty name, but the rest of us vetoed it. So mama and baby 2 names are still in the works.