Payton and Belle

A lot has happened since our last post; the New Orleans Saints have made it to the NFC Championship game (to be played tomorrow), Thanksgiving in Cheraw, Christmas in Maryland, just to name a few. But perhaps the most important, at least in Amanda's eyes, is the addition(s) that we have made to our little family. Sometime shortly before Thanksgiving, we adopted two 6 week old kittens, which we named "Payton" and "Belle." On the day that we got them, the Saints defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to go 10-0 for the season - so in honor of that great achievement, we named one of the kittens "Belle," after Mike Bell (who scored 2 TDs against the Buccs) and "Payton," after the Saints head coach Sean Payton.

For a long time, I insisted that we didn't get cats. I didn't want to be the "crazy cat family" and everytime Amanda lobbied for one (or more) kitten(s), I would make jokes about her being the neighborhood Crazy Cat Lady. But after a while, I folded - but with one stipulation. I made Amanda agree that we wouldn't name them something like Buttercup or Princess Penelope Pumpernickle. While I would still love to get a yellow lab one day (when we have a big backyard), Payton and Belle have added a lot of joy to our lives. In fact, it's a win-win for Amanda (a cat person) and myself (a dog person) because I'm convinced that Payton and Belle think that they are mighty jungle cats.

During the Christmas season, Payton became our Christmas tree squirrel. This picture fits Payton's personality perfectly. There is nothing she doesn't want to climb and there is no adventure that she doesn't want to conquer. She loves to pick fights with her napping sister and she loves to wrestle our shuffling feet. Payton is black and white and looks like an Dairy Queen Oreo blizzard. Just like her sister though, Payton is a great snuggler when she is tired.

...then there is Belle. Belle has the heart of a labrador. She is amazing at two things: napping and eating. In fact, this week I took the two of them for a check up and the vet was shocked to find that Belle weighed a little over a pound more than her sister. Belle is white, orangey/brown and a little bit of black. She looks like a Disney version of a baby Bengal.