When Cody lived at his grandma's house we always hung out with his cousin's cat, and we decided back then that when we got our own place and we were settled, we'd get two cats. We've been trying to figure out a good time to get the cats but since we travel so much it made picking a good time to get them hard. Finally, after our trip to Vegas and California we knew that we would be home for a couple months and that we'd be able to spend time with them and get them adjusted to the house before we went on another trip. So we started our search for them.
Apparently January isn't really "kitten" season. We went to a couple of shelters and didn't really find any kittens we were interested in. Then we heard of a place called Stay a While cat shelter in North Royalton, and it was literally about 5 minutes away from us. It was basically a ranch house converted into a cat shelter. You walk in and there are between 20 to 100 cats just free rooming around the place. We were looking for two boy cats, we wanted one to be an orange kitten and the other to be a calico kitten, or a kitten that had different colors in it's fur. We were hoping to find two brothers that were used to each other and that we could adopt together.
We walked into the kitten room and we saw this little guy. And as soon as I saw him, I knew he was the one. He was gorgeous and so sweet.
I was snuggling and holding him while we were there. The cat shelter had named him Dex.
When we met him he was a little bit sick. It seemed like every cat there had a respiratory infection. They were all wheezing and sneezing. So they told us that he was on antibiotics and that we had to wait a week to take him home. We were fine with that, we wanted him to get better before we brought him home.
This is Rex, Dex's brother. He was just as cute as Dex and he fit the description of exactly what we what we were hoping to find. We had two brothers that were both adorable, but Dex was incredibly scared and shy. He wanted absolutely nothing to do with us, and hide the best that he could the whole time. The girl showing us the cats couldn't even get him. When they found Dex and Rex they had been outside kittens and were rescued by the shelter. Rex was not a very friendly and lovable cat. I wouldn't say that he was a mean cat, but his personality just wasn't what we were looking for.
Then we went into the other kitten room that they had and there were two cats in there. Eggnog and Hitchcock. Eggnog is the kitty in the picture. Hitchcock was a pure black cat, that was mean as a rattlesnake. He hated people and we didn't even try to look at him.
But Eggnog really stole our heart. He was so lovable and so playful. He had the exact personality that we were hoping for. Dex was a little bit more shy and reserved and Eggnog was very playful and lovable.
When we first met him, I won't lie... I didn't think that his looks were too attractive (but I will say that he has gained some weight and has filled out really nicely, I love and think he's as cute as Dex now). But his personality was so great that we were sold on him. We were shocked that he hadn't been adopted yet, but I guess he was the last of his litter and all his siblings had been pure white. I guess everyone liked the pure white coat over his, so he was left behind. He was also a little older than we'd originally hoped for, because he was just on the verge of being a kitten and being a cat.
But by the end of our visit to the shelter we were sold on both of them. We told the place that we wanted to put a hold on them. We couldn't take them home right away because had Dex was sick. I was so excited! It was such a long wait for them to come home. We went out and got all kinds of cat stuff for them. My mom, the ultimate pack rat, had a whole bag of cat toys for them. The cat shelter decided to put Eggnog and Dex in the same room as each other for the week so that they could bond and get to know each other. We were worried about whether or not they would like each other... we should have never worried. They are best friends now. It was so funny, because when we came back the next weekend to see them the women told us that everyone had been trying to adopt Cosmo! Everyone suddenly loved him after we decided to adopt him. I'm soooo glad that we went when we did!
The Stay a While cat shelter's Facebook page had this baby picture of Dex and Rex on it. They didn't have one of Cosmo :( but isn't Dex soooo adorable!?!?! My cute little baby! And I read on their Facebook page that his brother Rex did get adopted about a month after Dex came to live with us. The girl that adopted him commented and said that he was really skittish at first, but after a week or so he was laying on her lap. I'm happy that he's doing well, and that he got a home. I knew with as cute as he was that he wouldn't have too much trouble.
We were debating names back and forth before we got them. We really liked the name Cosmo, because we had just stayed at the Cosmopolitan during our trip to Vegas where we had gotten engaged. We were strongly considering the name Casper too, but in the end we decided we didn't like it. We ended up keeping Dex's name as Dex and we changed Eggnog's to Cosmo. We went to pick them up on January 19th, 2014. I held them in the same blue crate during the 5 minute car ride. They were a little scared at first, but we were so excited to have them finally home.
Here is Cody helping Dex out of the crate.
Here Cody is holding Dex.
Cosmo ended up getting sick at shelter when the new cats came into his room. The poor little guy was so sick the first week that we had him. He was so weak and couldn't walk around hardly at all. The shelter told us that we shouldn't wait another week for him to get better, because it seemed like all of the cats there were sick, and they didn't want them to catch anything else. They gave us antibiotics to take home. At first he was really good about taking his pill two times a day. Basically he had to put it down his throat and then we had an eye dropper full of water that we'd squirt into his mouth to make sure that he didn't choke on the pill. Poor little guy. :( As he got better he started fighting us a little bit when he had to take the pill.
Poor Dex seemed a lot like Rex when we brought him home. He was very skittish and unsure of the place. He was hiding a lot from us. At night we locked them up in our upstairs bathroom with water and a litter box. When we'd come in, Dex would be hiding behind the toilet.
At first when we got the cat tree for them, I was excited to have it home ready for them when they got here, because they had a bunch of them at the animal shelter and they were used to cat trees. However, I stopped putting Dex in it because he was just hiding in the house all the time and not really spending time with us.
I'm almost glad that Cosmo was sick when we first got him, because all he wanted was to be snuggled. We got a lot of bonding time with him. He was fine after the first week and has been ever since.
It took Dex about 2 or 3 days to warm up to the house. He got used to us pretty quickly and then started exploring the house.
He was my little toddler... exploring everything. He has been throughout most of the house, but he's still afraid of the basement. When I open the basement door, I can't keep Cosmo from running down, but even if I leave it open Dex won't come down. I'm not sure why he doesn't like it.
At first he was all about the fire place. He like running around on the ledge and sitting up there.
After a few days he realized that he could jump from his cat condo onto the mantel. He ended up getting stuck up there because he was afraid to jump back onto the cat tree. Originally I had pictures up there, but he ended up knocking them off and he broke one. Cody scruffed him and yelled at him when this happened, and he didn't go back up for a while.
We ended up moving the cat tree to the other side of the room, because the cats started to lay up in the curtains, and then Dex started jumping back onto the mantel. So we fixed them and moved it away, and now they can't get into trouble.
Here is their first time seeing the litter box. We put Dex in and then put Cosmo down.
He hopped in right after Dex. Goofy cats did everything together. Dex was laying in there for a while afterwards. I think because it was an enclosed box and he felt safe, but we ended up taking him out.
My cuddle kittens. They just absolutely loooove each other. When we first got them they would cuddle with each other every single night.
Awww my babies! I'm not sure if they are still cuddling with each other or not every night. I usually fall asleep before them. But during the day I usually spot them sleeping apart, but sometimes they still cuddle like this.
Here's my photogenic baby boy. He always looks at me when I call him for a picture... unlike his brother who ignores me.
See... Cosmo ignoring me... Dex looking right at me haha. We love our kitties and we both think that we made a great choice picking them. Dex is a lot more playful then we originally thought he was, and Cosmo is super cuddly and loving. They have definitely changed our lives. I'm so happy to start our little family. :)
