Fun Dollars: : Felines and Fun Dollars

Now that the kids are back after "covid" and the world is starting to feel a little more "normal" I have reached the point in my adult life that I feel like I can handle a little more responsiblity.

Up until this point I have worried about "having enough". Can I live on my own and support myself? Can I go on vacation and still have some leftover Fun Dollars? Will COVID ever and and can I rely on having a job??? (I was laid off for 6 weeks during shelter-in-place.)

I noticed while I was living completely by myself as a sheltered-in-place human, I had a need for companionship while the kids are gone. I knew that the best choice for me to fill that space in my life was to get a pet. I needed a snuggler, a companion. I felt like starting out with a cat would be the way to go.

I also knew that the kids would benefit form introducing a pet into our new home. It would "complete" that feeling of family. It would give them something to care for, learn responsibility with and give attntion to. It might even curtail some of the bickering if they could direct their energies into a sweet little furball instead of each other.

I knew that Carrick could handle having a cat. He is an animal person in general. He really likes to connect with critters. He has spent time with my mom (Nana, the Cat Lady), and he has learned quite a bit about how to interact with cats especially. She had an older male cat that didn't really like outsiders, but when my son would spend a week at his grandparents' house, she would show him ways to slowly make nice with the cat. She showed him how to be calm around the cat and to make him feel more comfortable. After a few times of spending a week with Nana and her cat, Carrick learned new animals skills, and knew more about skittish kitties.

My daughter on the other hand is only 7. She mostly wants to treat kitties like baby dolls. She wants to hold them and love them, even if they don't want it. Her willingness to participate in their care isn't as readily available as her brother's. However, she can still learn and take responsibility because she is old enough (even if she doesn't "want to".)

So, with all of this in mind, I recently recieved a call from a neighbor who had a litter of kittens. They were about 8 weeks old and were litter trained. They already had their first round of shots too!

I wanted two kittens, and I had to clear it with my landlord first. Fortunately he is also a "cat person" and had no problem with me getting two kittens. If I were getting an older cat from a shelter, I would have been ok with just one cat. But since these cats were very young, I thought it would be better to have two. They would be able to play together.

In preparation for this new adventure, I had set aside some Fun Dollars for a couple months. It was leftover Fun Dollars from vactaion (and surprise! it did not deplete my Fun Dollars account either!) Over the past few months (since I have been considereing this) I had set aside about a grand of Fun Dollars! Shots, spaying, toys, food, litter boxes and all the other stuff for the kitties would have to be covered by the budget I had in mind. This also included the pet deposit.

We recieved our sweet little kittes this past Monday and the kids have really taken to them. Lily took some time to warm up to them and realized they did not want to be carted around like a baby doll. She now lets them come up to her (for the most part). Carrick is a Cat Whisperer. He is one with the cats. He gets up early just to feed them and have extra play time before we leave the house in the morning.

We decided to name them after the two sisters in our "family movie". Ever since I was a kid, the movie Big Business is the movie my family quoted on a daily basis. It was the source of our family jokes. Its been a connecting point for us. I have since shared this movie with my kids to carry on the "tradition" so to speak. It's become a thing that they quote now! (It's hilarious to be at the dinner table and hear one of them bust out a line from the movie.) This movie represents family to me. Since these kitties are the completion to our family, we wanted to name them something that reflected the connection that we (as a family) share.

Introducing, Sadie and Rose.