Kittens!

Opal, left, and Pearl

Meet the two new loves of my life--Pearl and Opal. They are about 12 weeks old and we adopted them Dec. 10 from the Feline Foundation. They are both solid black, and the first few days the only way we could tell them apart was that I painted the tip of one of Pearl's ears with bright pink nail polish (a trick I'd learned when we adopted our cat Seymour. He was one of a litter of five tabbies, and the foster parent had color-coded them this way.)

Now we can tell them apart by their personalities--and the fact that Opal's face is a little more angular than Pearl's. Opal is the cuddler and Pearl is the intrepid explorer. They are both champion purrers. Opal is also the loudmouth--meowing voraciously any time someone enters the kitchen to let them know ItMustBeMealtimeFeedMeNowPlease. You can't believe something so little could make so much racket.

Opal is probably the one who got them rescued: Three little black kitten sisters were found under a bush by a kind-hearted stranger who heard them mewling. No mom in sight. He took them to a nearby vet hospital, where a vet tech bottle-fed them--they were thought to be about 5 weeks old--until they were old enough to be moved into a Feline Foundation foster home. That's where we got them a few weeks later. We couldn't adopt all three--and boy, it felt like Sophie's choice to have to choose--but the little sister we left behind has many other cats to play with, and I'm sure she'll warm somebody's heart very soon in a "forever" home.

Seymour, who's 7 years old, is mostly baffled by them, watching them skitter around and play-fight. But he is certainly treating them better than our late cat Cyprus treated him. (I don't she ever really forgave us for bringing him home.) He lets them bat his tail around, but he won't let them get close enough yet for a group portrait.

My office, where all my beading supplies are, is currently off-limits to the young'uns, although Seymour has a cat bed by the heating vent and is welcome. Thank heavens they are ignoring the Christmas tree--a few years ago we switched from buying a full-size tree from the lot down the street to ordering a live, four-foot, tabletop Fraser fir every year. It's up on a table that's a bit too tall for them to access, but we did keep our most fragile glass ornaments in storage, just in case. (Lori, I know you went through the same thing this year!)

I'm off work between Christmas and New Year's, so I hope to use that time to experiment with some new techniques and to make some pieces for me and not for a craft show for a change.