Happy Birthday T & U !

Its Tanjiro and Uschi-Swirl's fifth birthday! We've been spending the day with an extra-long walk outside, extra servings of yummy food, a lot of hugging, and a look back at our second trip to visit the boys (March 7, 2006) when they were five weeks old. We did a blog on this visit long ago, but found archived photos that we never edited.

We had already met mom Skye, the six kittens, and of course their Aunt Kelli when the boys were only two weeks old. At that time marbled Uschi joined the family, and now it was time to see which of his spotted brothers would be coming home with us in May (2006). We drove up to Seattle, excited and ready to see how much the boys had grown.

Kelli had moved Skye and the kittens up to the guest bathroom so we could spend some time curled up with the family, while people visited the other moms and kittens in their rooms. It still sticks in our minds how spotless everything was, seriously white carpet and tile? We only have one room and three cats, yet there is fur and litter flying everywhere. Little did Kelli know that we would spend close to six hours enjoying the gorgeous Skye-babies.

When we showed up, Skye was as sweet as ever.

Please, someone take some of these kittens! :)
(Its amazing how much Vladi looks like his Mom)

There they were, a pile of mewing, tiny kittens.
They looked so fragile, but they were ready to rumble.
(Tanjiro, Uschi-Swirl, Beemer, Comet, Logan, Rocket-Man)

All of a sudden, kittens were stumbling everywhere,
still growing into their lanky legs.

While his spotty brothers were exploring,
it became very clear that Uschi was a Mommys-boy.

He must be really dirty.

Hey, where is Uschi?

Finally his highness makes a guest appearance.

So soft, and so cute.
He's visiting Les, but about a minute later...

Uschi has staked claim to his "Dad."

The first of many, many hugs.

Meanwhile, as we have been oogling Uschi,
the spotties have headed back for a snack.

At this point, we are having a really tough time keeping the boys sorted out (and Les studied photos before the trip up). Luckily Kelli keeps checking on us and re-identifying who is who. That's Tanji getting licked, he has a "dogbone" shape spot above a big round spot on his right side.

Hey, no one told me it was snack time!

Uschi is looking for a place of his own,
his big belly lets us know he's getting plenty of Mom-time.

Skye decides snack time is over...

The brothers are back on the move.

Suddenly everyone is wrestling,... Adorable.

Uschi is rolling around with Beemer.

Its time to get down to business, to pick the brother
that will join Uschi in our family, but that turns out to
be really difficult, they are all so perfect!

I'm cute!

I'm sweet!

I wuv you.

Play with me,...

Can't we have them all?,... No Les, we can not.

Aaah, too much cute!

Uschi and I are watching,... having a good time...

Les is a mix of elation and panic over making the "right" choice.

How about you, little sweetie? (its Tanji)

Tanji seems a little shyer than his brothers,
but something just clicked with him. That's our boy.

Its almost nap time again,
We've been hogging the bathroom for hours,
but are reluctant to head home.

Tanji and Uschi are snuggling together.

We watched them sleep, snapped about 100 more photos,
and when they woke, we took our first family photos...

Ta-Daaaa, our new happy family!

We visited again three weeks later (poor Kelli, we were crazed),
but it was hard to say goodbye.

A final peek at the boys settling in with Skye, and we headed home.

Its five years later, and we still get a little emotional about our kitten visits.

Big hugs to Kelli and all of the families with Skye-babies!


Previous ----- Home ----- Next