Monday Morning Catch Up – New Additions

I know it’s been a while since I wrote a Monday Morning Catch Up post, so I thought it’s about time I check-in and introduce the latest additions to our family!

Meet Nikko and Kula.  Our Tonkinese kittens that keep life interesting, to say the least!

These little beauties arrived in September.  I realize it’s now January, but we’ve been pretty busy around here.

Erren’s Kitchen is launching a new site design next month and between getting my son settled into a new school, working on new recipes, the site launch, the holidays and dealing with the chaos of kittens, this is the first time I’ve had a chance to write a Monday Morning Post!

As you may know, we already have a fifteen-year-old cat, Alfie.  Alfie is beloved around here.  My son has been sleeping with him since he was little and before the move, we lost our Alfie’s brother, Luka.  It hit us pretty hard.

My son is on the spectrum and this has been a big year of change for him.  We moved home to New Jersey after living his whole life in the UK, he’s started a new school – his life has been turned upside down.  Losing our other cat was a wake-up call.  Alfie is not going to live forever and we thought it was time to get kittens so that when the time comes, our son will have the comfort of other pets to get him through.

Niko and Kula arrive. 

This is Niko when he first came home.  

He is a wonderful mischievous little guy who is crazy about my son.

They bonded from day one and although having kittens is not easy, seeing them together makes it totally worth it.

Then there is Kula (named after our cat that passed – my son just scrambled the letters).  Kula is the problem child. 

Yep, he’s laying in the Christmas tree!  We ended up having to take down all the ornaments and replace them with bells so that we knew when he was scaling it!  I found him hanging from the stockings on the fireplace, and on once occasion, he was actually stuck in the tree – five minutes after I pulled him out, he was climbing it again!  I was never so happy to take the tree down!!

Below is a picture to give you an idea of what it’s been like with kittens in the house.

It’s been hectic!  There isn’t a door, cupboard, closet, cabinet or drawer you can open without one of the little silent ninjas jumping in and causing trouble!  They get into everything!  I have had to take anything that’s breakable off of every surface in the house and don’t get me started on how long it took us to cover every cord and wire in the house because they won’t stop biting them!

As I sit here and write this, one of them just jumped on my desk and walked across the keyboard causing me to delete the string of letters he spread across the screen! 

They are as adorable and endearing as they are infuriating and although there have been days I have cried out of frustration (I kid you not – the chaos is real), we adore them.  That said, I cannot wait for them to get older and calm down!

I wish I could tell you that Alfie is happy to have his new housemates.  Sadly, he hates them more than I ever thought possible.  He hisses, growls and spits at them most of the time.  I make sure he stays as comfortable as possible and he gets A LOT of extra love and quality time.  Fingers crossed, it all gets easier soon.  Wish us luck!