Our family is about to Grow: 4 ' 20

Surprise!  Bruce and I have made the decision to double the size of our family

with the adoption of two  five-year-old male black cats.

We had been thinking about adopting a bonded pair of older cats for some time, but of course we were thinking that when we adopted it would be under less dire health conditions when when we could expect to do a meet and greet  be for making a decision.  

 Yesterday morning  neighbor who is involved in cat rescue, contacted me to say that the rescue  organization she works with  had just taken in two black cats.   She said that their elderly owner had died, and the bonded brothers were  scheduled to be euthanized this afternoon.   They re little younger than we had in mind, but otherwise fit our criteria and they really need a home now.

We spent the morning cleaning and  refurnishing out Carolina room.

  Bruce has always been big on protecting  all of the neighborhood  strays during from hurricanes, ice storms and  other natural disasters , so we keep a fair amount of cat stuff (cages, litter, food, soft old bedding towels ) on hand, and we have quite a bit of experience at setting up the Carolina room  in a way that helps reduce the animal's anxiety when it finds itself trapped in a strange place with no means of escape.

What we want to do is to keep the cats in that room  until they feel safe and  then release them into the rest  of the house. I  have set up two of our large wire cages  in a corner  so the cats would be sheltered on two sides by the house-walls.  Then, I put large two large houseplants on the other two sides so they will feel even more hidden from view.  I've covered the floors of the cages with lots of  soft clean towels. And put our a large bowl of water with a circulating fountain so they had a fresh flowing water. 

The prior owner's family has very thoughtfully sent  us all of the cat's personal comforts  including their  blankets and their  personal toys which we've added into the room and cages so they will find things with their own scent to help make the area seem a little less foreign.

Now it is just  time to wait and see how it goes.