How It All Began - part one

Let me set the scene:

It was 2006. My wife was pregnant about 4 months. It was summer. We had 2 cats at the time--they were my wife's children and I was the stepdad. Fred (no longer with us, and perhaps the subject of a future post or blog) and Daphne (still here and enduring the pain as I do) were the only other creatures in the house. Maureen and I were going through what most first-time, young expectant parents go through: insanity, scrambling to figure out HOW to be parents, saving money, and just generally getting things ready...it was a pretty crazy time.

So, Maureen decides that things aren't crazy enough: she wants another cat. A KITTEN, to be exact. I guess her maternal instincts went into overdrive and she felt like taking care of the world, I don't know. As the husband, I had to do whatever she wanted, because she was the one carrying a live animal in her belly, and it was summer.

We go to PetSmart (which we are not crazy about doing now...again, another post/blog topic), and there happens to be a local pet rescue displaying the most adorable animals that you have ever seen. We spent like 16 hours looking at and petting the cats and trying to figure out which one was going to come home with us. Maureen likes to say that Frederika chose HER...

So, how did we end up taking TWO kittens home? Well, they're like potato chips...to a pregnant woman. Like I said: they were the most adorable things you've ever seen. And the kittens we got are sisters, so, of course we couldn't separate them. Maureen picked up Frederika and I picked up Olive (they were both named later). Two TINY black kittens, sleepy and cuddly and innocent. Little did I know...

...to be continued...