Before I was married, or even delightfully engaged, I made a couple of observations about those of the “just married” kind. Observation #1 was the selection of “just married” brides’ profile pictures. Per my research (also known as Facebook stalking), most girls seemed to choose pictures of themselves surrounded by lots of friends from their wedding.

After noticing this about a few newlyweds, I started intentionally looking for this pattern with a friend and we were shocked to find almost EVERY recent bride’s profile we looked up indeed showcased a fun picture of them with friends instead of their groom. My thought was that perhaps these girls realized they now can put a check next to the box marked “fall in love with awesome guy” and are more concerned about maintaining great friendships. Or maybe it was just a total coincidence. All I know is I want to go back and look at my post-wedding profile pictures!

Moving on to Observation #2 and the topic of today’s post… I can remember as far back as high school recognizing many newlyweds adopted a dog as some sort of practice for parenthood. And even now, as I think of people in my own life, I can name more young married couples that have done this than those that have not. I vowed this would never be me. Dogs have never been my favorite, so bringing on extra responsibility and work during the time I want to enjoy just being with my husband seemed silly to me.

However, after having an indoor cat since I was in middle school, I was not quite prepared for how much I would miss the sassiness of a cat residing in our home. Last fall, I was talking about how much I love our home and even the “living with a boy” thing and told Ryan that the one cherry on top of our sweet lives would be a little kitten. So I hinted and hinted and recruited some help in the form of hinting from my best friends.

And because Ryan is all that is awesome, he totally delivered. But what I have not shared with you, DE friends of mine, was the process that was KITTEN SHOPPING IN FEBRUARY!

Poor Ryan wanted to have the kitten for me on Valentine’s Day, but after the intense cold we’ve had, there was not quite an abundance of sweet little kitties around. By which I mean, THERE WERE NO KITTENS ANYWHERE.

Ryan had searched on his own and even talked to a feline psychiatrist about matching personalities and such.

(Brief timeout for Ryan’s sake. Ryan is all that is a DOG PERSON. We have agreed that as soon as we have a yard, he will get to have the desire of his heart in the canine form. All of this kitten participation is less about his love for cats and more about his love for me. You’re welcome for that explanation, Ryan. I know you were worried people might label you a “cat person.”)

So, Ryan did a lot of work searching on his own, and then I joined the search and together we contacted and/or visited over 30 animal shelters on the Friday after Valentine’s Day. They all communicated the same thing to us that normally they have WAY TOO MANY kittens and we just chose the worst time to look for one, but if we waited a month or two, they’d have tons to choose from. So, we decided to wait.

And then that next morning, the phone rang. We didn’t even know which of the million places we’d visited gave this lady our number, but she called with the news that she had two kittens.

Ryan was excited, while I was extremely skeptical. Only because I kept getting my hopes up when people told us to come see their “kittens” and then we’d get there to find some 3-year old cat with like one eye (which is totally cool for someone, but just not quite what we were looking for.)

So even though Ryan was willing to drive an hour to go look at these two, I was done getting my hopes up and already knew these two would probably be huge big cats, instead of adorable baby kittens I had dreamed of.

Wisely, Ryan asked the lady to text us a picture. And there we were, still cuddled under the covers in bed, anxiously staring at Ryan’s phone…

She sent a picture and THEY WERE KITTENS. AND ADORABLE.

We drove the hour drive in the pouring rain with me STILL not getting my hopes up, but the minute we walked in their house and saw the two guys, I KNEW the search for the most perfect Valentine ever was complete.

So without further ado, it is my pleasure to introduce to you to Gaiser and Gatsby!!!
ONE kitten is precious,
Yes, it is true,
But, SURPRISE…
The Shippmates have two!!!!!

Posts coming soon about the adventures of doubling your family overnight. But for now, let me just say, these two have been the cherry on top that I imagined with some sprinkles, whipped cream, marshmallows, and hot fudge, too!

I genuinely had no clue how much happy they would add to our home. Best Valentine’s ever!!