Toad and Henry

About this time two years ago Merritt and I decided to get kittens for Alex and Sam. You may already know the story of Pumpkin and Mr. Pickles, but for those of you who don't here is a quick overview. Alex and Sam adored those two kittens. Merritt and I despised them. They didn't start out very sweet, but did eventually become somewhat nicer. Every time we would open the garage door they would come tearing around the house and into the garage. Therefor every time we would go anywhere I would back up, get out, shut the garage door, take the kittens out and walk around the house (this was during the winter mind you). They would catch birds then leave various and assorted bird organs scattered over the patio and they were stinky. We talked many time about getting rid of them, but the boys loved them so much. Then last spring I heard growling and looked out on the patio. Um...our two "boy" cats were not both boys. So that was it, they both soon "ran away" and Merritt and I vowed to never have cats again. The boys were devastated. They still talk about them and many of Alex's stories in school last year were about them.

About a month ago a little orange kitten (who looked like Pumpkin) found it's way into our new house while workers had the door open. The boys begged to keep it and after very short consideration we said no. Then last week while the boys were playing outside with Olivia and Abby, two little gray kittens showed up. The boys immediately fell in love with them and I must say they were very cute and very sweet. So we fed them, made them a home and named them Toad (Alex's) and Henry (Sam's, after a Thomas train). A few days ago they disappeared (with out help this time). I was even starting to like those kittens, they really were sweet little things. The boys of course are devastated. If I knew we could find some just like them I would even consider it again.