Lily and Louie's Family Album

FYI: none of the pics (except the cage photo) in this post are mine - I screen grabbed them to create an album of Lily and Louie's momma and siblings. 

In May of 2018, when we had finally decided to find a 'friend" for Lola, I did most of my research on line. I screen grabbed lots of photos - and at one point had this group to investigate more fully.  You can see Lily is in the bottom right corner - (aka Arianne)

Joyful Rescues (click name for link)

is a non profit animal rescue group that works out of Cuba NY

When my husband saw the pics of the kittens I was looking at - he immediately picked out (Arianne) Lily and said - lets work towards meeting her. 

And so we did. I filled out the application - went thru the phone interview - and gratefully we were chosen.

The only back story I could get was that Momma Amelia was rescued with her 5 kittens from Virginia (possibly West Virginia) .... well one of the two.  Amelia had a litter of 4 kittens and had become a surrogate for another kitten who had lost her momma. 

They give the animals the name of the people who sponsor the trip down and back to bring the animals to NY and possible new families.  Amelia and her kittens were part of the BRUHIN Trip. We are so-ever thankful they were rescued. 

I love the photos Joyful Rescues posted. They have made a great album for my babies. 

Amelia - the momma

I think Lily (Arianne) is growing up to look just like her momma.

Amelia nursing her little babies

And here are all the babies that were rescued with Amelia. Aren't they just precious!

                                           

ANSEL  is our LOUIE!!

ARIANNE is our LILY

Ariel was the baby kitty Amelia adopted as her own.


In the previous post I shared how my husband and I went to the Pet Store they were set up at only to find they had sent both Arianne and Ansel - the two kittens left from the litter (mom was still too weak/sick for adoption). 

Our first look at Ansel (Louie) in front and Arianne (Lily) in back.


 Of course I was in love with Lily right away. But little Louie kept meowing and begged to be paid attention to. and so we went home with both of them.

BEST DECISION EVER!!!

 I followed all of the cats after we adopted Lily and Louie and was happy to see  all of their  2 brothers and Ariel - were adopted before we got Lily and Louie, and momma Amelia went to her forever home a month or so after.

Sometimes I wish I could see a great family reunion - or at least see pictures of the Aaron and Alex and Amelia to see how they are doing. Wondering if they are similar size to Louie.

Maybe someday.
For now I just hope they are all as happy as our sweet babies are.


*** AGAIN - these are not photos I took - but photos from Joyful Rescues website - taken to showcase the cats for adoption. I truly hope they don't mind me posting them.  *****

😻 LET'S SART AT THE VERY BEGINNING 😻

In June of 2015, My oldest son and his friend adopted 2 kittens.  

They named the two brothers Rain and Prince. 

As fate would have it, shortly after they got them - they had to go out of town,  and needed someone to take care of the babies.  We volunteered.

RAIN  June 2015

PRINCE  June 2015

How do you not fall in love with this sweetness?

I was sunk.  No sooner had they come back from out of town - took the babies away, then my second son tells me the story of his friend finding an abandoned litter of kittens. Could he please have one.
 Next thing I knew I had 4 week old Nala - and I was the main caretaker over the summer (I am a school teacher). 

NALA  4 weeks old

Of course the story doesn't end there. 

4 months later, October 2015 - my husbands boss got home from a vacation to find a tiny little 10 week old black cat crying in the woods behind his house.  He knew I had recently been converted and asked if we wanted a second cat to keep Nala company. I could not refuse this little darling.  Lola was welcomed with open arms. 

And so for the next two years we were a happy 2 cat family.

 (Prince and Rain lived in the city with my oldest son). 

Then in September of 2017 our second son moved into his first apartment. 

He took Nala with him. 

In our humans, my husband and I assumed Lola was lonely all day long with us at work - so as summer once again approached we searched for a female black cat to join our Lola. 

Joyful Rescues based in Cuba NY had just the sweetheart for us. Her name was Arianne. I saw her picture on the internet and applied to adopt her. She and 3 brothers were rescued with their momma from Virginia. 2 of the brothers had already been adopted. Momma was still too sick. We went to meet and pick up Arianne - only to find they had sent her brother Ansel with her. 

Arianne is in the back, Louie is in the front. There was no way we could take one and leave the other. The agency approved us to take both and so  we did. 

When we got home - we decided we were going to call them "The Littles" because they were so little. and keeping with the "L" renamed them Lily and Louie. 

The above pic was after some rough and tumble play. Louie on the Left - and Lily on the front. He must have scratched her - but it wasn't long lasting and she was fine.

Our journey had begun.  Lola and The Littles (aka Lily and Louie) had a permanent place in our home and in our hearts.