Happy Tails: Smoky & Bandit and Carrie
Smoky & Bandit with Charlie
When considering adopting a friend for a senior kitty, it’s important to consider if a kitten is a good fit. Rambunctious kittens can add additional stress to a senior kitty, but adopting a bonded kitten pair means they have a playmate to wear themselves out with and a warm snuggly senior friend. In this month’s Happy Tail, we meet Smoky and Bandit, two littermates adopted as kittens by Carrie. Smoky and Bandit share a home with their senior kitty sibling, 19 year old Charlie.
When Smoky & Bandit met Carrie
We met Smoky and Bandit, along with their mom and all their littermates, when they were 10 weeks old. We went with both our kids to meet the litter of six kittens. Bandit was the first kitty to come up to us and Smoky soon followed after. They were the most interactive with us, plus one other littermate who was a female, but we had decided beforehand we wanted two male kittens.
We have a 19 year old cat named Charlie who we've had since he was about 8 weeks old, and we used to have two other cats who passed away in 2009 and 2018.
A few years ago we tried to adopt an adult cat and Charlie bullied him. No matter how gently we tried to introduce them, he wasn't going to accept it so we surrendered the kitty back to the shelter.
Since Charlie had accepted one of our previous cats who was a kitten when we got him, we decided to go ahead and try a pair of kittens with him.
When we brought Smoky and Bandit home they were so small! They would curl up on our laps and purr when we visited them in our ensuite bathroom, where they spent the first 48 hours. We kept Charlie and the kittens separated for a bit and let them sniff and such. Initially, when we let them loose Charlie would hiss at them, so they mostly left him alone. After several days Charlie began to tolerate them being beside him and touching him.
Now he absolutely loves them! They sleep together and Charlie grooms them. Bandit will often curl up with Charlie on our bed or the couch. Smoky and Bandit are VERY active kittens, particularly Bandit who gets into all sorts of mischief. We love hearing them run around the house and they have plenty of toys to play with. They’re also good with the kids. My daughter can pick up Smoky and carry him all over and he allows her to. Bandit’s a little more squirmy and he’ll come to you and paw your leg when he wants to be picked up. He’s also a lap cat and will come and curl up on a lap whenever someone is on the couch.
What Smoky & Bandit love
They both love crinkle balls and Bandit has a thick string he drags around the house and growls. It's soooo funny!
Enjoy this story and want to share your own Happy Tail? Email kotm@vokra.ca for information about how to share your kitty’s story.