Since we called up the shelter on Wednesday and told them we were interested in Debbie, Dolly, and Dottie, I have had to repeatedly warn my daughter that we may not get these kittens after all, and so she should not latch on to these particular kittens just yet.

Sound advice it turned out.

We were informed upon arrival that although we could take Dottie and Debbie home, we would need to substitute a different kitten for Dolly (my favorite).  Apparently, due to a mix-up at the shelter, Dolly had been promised to another family who was driving to the shelter from northern New Hampshire.  Lynnea cried, and I was pretty blue too.  Dolly was still at the shelter and she was adorable... it broke my heart to have to leave her behind.  We told the folks at the shelter that if for some reason the other people decided they didn't want Dolly, to call us and we would take her.

The attendant kept trying to push the idea of a male kitten on us despite our repeated insistance that we wanted three females.  Eventually she went away and we were able to meet the kittens at the shelter and try to find a replacement for Dolly.  I immediately latched on to a tiny all-grey 8-week-old kitten with a loud purr.  She went by the provisional name "Kristen".  I was ready to leave when I was informed by the attendant who had come back that this kitten too was already spoken for.

"Exactly which kittens are NOT spoken for?" I asked.

"All of them, except for Dolly and Kristen."

Just my luck.

Then I found a beautiful 10-week-old calico who was timid but affectionate.  She went by the provisional name "Maggie".  I really liked this cat but Pat felt that her hair was longish, and that perhaps we should try to find one with shorter hair.  While we were looking at the others, another couple was ushered in, immediately latched on to Maggie, and left with her, thus ending any chance for me to decide I really wanted that kitten after all.

I began to dislike the way things were being run at the shelter.

• One of the cats we were told was available when we spoke for it on Wednesday was given to someone else.
   
• After expressing our wish to own 3 females, the attendant kept pushing the idea of getting a male.
   
• We were put in a room alone with kittens, some of which were already spoken for (including the one originally promised to us) without being told which ones were available until after getting to know them. And why the heck are they even in the same room with the others?
   
• Finally, we had gone to the trouble to schedule "an appointment" only to find ourselves competing with other families as we tried to take our time and "get to know" the cats before we selected the ones we wanted.

Eventually we selected a mostly-black cat with a white "moustache" provisionally named "Regina #6" that Pat had taken a liking to.  At 15 weeks, Regina was a little older than the other two kittens, but the attendant assured us they all got along.  The shelter was nice enough to give us a bag of the food the cats had been eating so that we could wean them over to IAMS.

So with three little kittens in a pet carrier, we went bumping over the snowy roads to home.  On the trip home we bandied about names for our new pets.  Lynnea announced that she wanted to call Dottie by the name "Sprinkles".  Pat selected "Cherokee" as a name for Regina #6, and I decided to call Debbie "Sunflower".  While we ate lunch, the newly renamed kittens explored the small pen we had set up as a "staging area".  By the time we finished lunch Cherokee had already figured out how to climb out of the pen.  The dogs were barking in the kitchen, and though Sprinkles and Sunflower quickly acclimated to the noisy mutts, Cherokee did not... probably because she was not in the same litter and was raised in a different environment.

Later in the afternoon we had to run some errands so we returned Cherokee to the staging area yet again and put her in the pet carrier, figuring she would feel safer in there.  When we came home a couple hours later we discovered that Sprinkles and Sunflower had figured out how to escape the pen by hopping atop the pet carrier.  They were relaxing on the couch when we found them.  So much for the staging area!

So we put a gate up on the living room door and moved all the kitty paraphernalia to that room. Then we all sat around and watch the kittens play.  They were adorable, and after watching some particularly hilarious antics, Pat looked at me with her eyes shining and said "I'm glad we got more than one this time."

Within another hour they had figured out how to scale the living room gate, so we shut the study door and the doors upstairs and will soon take the gate down altogether, leaving only the kitchen gate.  Since the dogs are in there I don't think we're going to have to worry too much about the cats going in there.  Nonetheless the dogs will have to be crated until we're certain that they won't try to hurt the cats.

Later in the night while Pat and I lay dozing in bed, Cherokee suddenly joined us, and soon settled in between us, her loud purring lulling me into a deep sleep.  At 2 AM when my cellphone started ringing and woke me I found Cherokee on my chest, licking the blanket and purring while kneading the blanket with her paws.

Welcome home kittens.  We're happy to have you.