My brother's girlfriend's dad found a kitten wandering outside on its own, clearly stray. The kitten was sweet, so the most obvious thing to do was send the kitty over to my parents' house, since that is about the most animal-friendly place you'll find in the whole Phoenix suburban area. Despite posts on FB and trips to the vet to see if he was chipped, this kitty's original family could not be found. My family quickly fell in love and kept texting me pics (Dad has long said they won't get another cat after 20-year-old Jasmine passes away). This poor kitten wanted to be friends with Jasmine so bad, and after getting whacked by her a few times he began full-on tackling the poor old lady.

About an hour after I convinced Dallin to let us keep four-month-old "Atticus," my sister-in-law Kaeli found out that a family friend would be taking the last kitten of their litter, about three-and-a-half months old, to the shelter.  There was nothing wrong with him; they had just sold all of the siblings and hadn't managed to find anyone to take "Toothless." I quickly offered to foster the little guy until he could get a home.  Kaeli drove him over. But not even an hour after posting Toothless on KSL and Instagram did I get a text from Dallin's dad saying they wanted to keep him.  Their two cats had died that year, and their dog had died that week, so it was good timing for the girls. 

Arlo being fed-up with Toothless' BS.

At Thanksgiving we did a cat swap--Kaeli drove Toothless to Arizona, and my parents drove Atti to Utah. At first, Arlo was not thrilled about all the new kitties staying in the house.  Although darling with humans, Toothless was rather aggressive with Arlo and would attack him while he was sleeping. Atticus, on the other hand, was completely the opposite. Within minutes, he was OBSESSED with becoming Arlo's friend. It took Arlo a few days to realize that, when Atti attacked him in his sleep, it wasn't to "show him who's book" like Toothless, but to play! They are quickly learning to be friends.

Atticus has left my Christmas tree unravelled quite a few times, despite my attempts at the spray bottle.

Jasmine, who I talked about and drew NONSTOP in preschool according to the 2002 parent-teacher report I found in an old box.