Kitty Kitty

We've discovered Zachary is not allergic to kitties like we first thought, he's allergic to dust mites that live off of the cat dander. So all those times he was sneezing up a storm at someone's house is because they didn't vacuum enough not because they had cats. This got me thinking, I don't have dust mite allergies but I wonder if Cody has them?

I took my Dyson over to a friend's house to clean it before she got some kittens. Cody came over to her house a couple times and those cats were all over him with their tiny pink noses in his face and their wiggly bodies begging to be petted. No sneezes, no itchy watery eyes and no invisable cat fur feeling on his skin. We exposed Cody to the cats a couple of different times and the only time he seemed to have an issue was when she hadn't cleaned the floors for a while.

With much excitement, the boys and I headed to the pound to find a kitty or two. I'd discussed it with some friends and they all said to buy more than one kitty kitty because it'll have someone to play with and one kitty kitty wouldn't adapt well if we decided to get another cat later, but two kitty kitties wouldn't care as much.

The pound was horrid. Just horrid. Way crowded with cats and it smelled horrid. The place made my skin crawl. We wanted a beautiful long fur black cat, but long fur is more of an issue with the dust mite allergies so we looked at the short fur kitties. Wes picked out an adorable peach colored kitty and it attacked my chest when I picked it up so we put that one back. Wes then picked out an orange tabby cat and Zach wanted a tiny gray tabby. We put them in the cage I brought with us and they settled right down to go to sleep. They were so needy in the big cage and it just seemed like they knew they were going home with us.

I had to fill out some forms (lots of forms) and for $10 a kitty we were able to take them home with us. I stuck the cage in between the boys in the back seat and they commensed with arguing over who the kitties were nearer and who got the side of the cage with the door so they could pet them. They quit the bickering when I said I'd bring the kitties back to the pound and no one gets to open the door and with that we headed home. Not one peep from the kitties on the way, they just seemed to sleep the whole time.

After we got them home, I discovered they had fleas. Not just a couple either, massive amounts of fleas on their tiny bodies. I put them back in the cage in the kitchen and headed to the store for flea shampoo. I washed the orange tabby first and it was disgusting how much dirt came off of her fur. She wasn't clean all the way, but she was cold so I figured she'd have two baths. I started drying her and it wasn't just dirt coming off, it was matted blood. She had fleas so bad that they made her bleed and she wasn't orange/rust colored any more, she was only that color because of the blood in her fur. Poor baby. I was so angry and then while I was drying her I noticed you can feel every single bone in her body. She has no fat on her and was just so tiny for being 8 weeks.

We promptly started feeding the kitties some wet kitten food. Both of them gobbled it up and I waited for Cody to be home before bathing the other kitty. I had to go teach a class so Cody bathed her for me. She apparently didn't handle it as well as Pumpkin and she bit Cody on his hand. He got her clean though and held her on his belly to war her up a little more.

The cats are finally flealess and Pumpkin has grown so much in the last couple days. She's already much bigger then when we bought her. Wes is infatuated with the kittens and the first night we had them, he snuck out of his room to sleep by the baby gate so he could be closer to the them. It's adorable. He just wants to pet them all the time, but he doesn't seem to get that he can't always hold them. He has a couple scratches to show for it and yet he still loves his kitties. He kept trying to pack them up in their cage and spring them from the gates of the kitchen so he could sneak them to his room to play. It was so cute and he told me the kitties wanted to play in his room, not the kitchen.

Zach loves them too. He's a little more careful with the kitties then Wesley is and Zach is very protective of these kitties to the point where he gets mean with Wes if Wes isn't being gentle.

Watching Cody with them is amazing. He seems to melt with the kitties and we all laugh at pretty much everything they do. I never thought I'd get to have kitties because of Cody's allergy and even though I love them to pieces it really wasn't a choice of having them or not. I just couldn't have my hubby sick all the time. I'm so glad I don't have to make that choice anymore.

And there are finally more girls than just me in the house. Woot!