Getting Yogi and Boo Boo

For those of you that don’t know or haven’t had the pleasure of meeting them, Jen and I have two wonderful cats. Their names are Yogi and Boo Boo (Jen was a big fan of the Yogi Bear cartoons when she was growing up.) Read on to find out a little more about how we got our cats and what they’re like.

Not long after we bought our house in Mount Pleasant in April of 2002, we started talking about getting a couple of kittens. It was mainly my idea. Jen loves cats too, though. She grew up with cats at her house. I had a dog when I was growing up in South Carolina, but we had cats also after we moved to Michigan when I was in Junior High.

At that time, Jen and I were both working at Alma College. We were concerned that getting a single cat would mean it would spend too much time along by itself. Getting a pair of kittens who could keep each other company was the logical choice. We talked to some friends and heard about a lady who lived near us and often took in and raised cats. She had a new litter of kittens (as always).

We went and picked out two adorable little kittens, a dark colored tiger and a lighter, almost siamese-looking kitten. They were brother and sister. They weren’t old enough to leave their mother yet, so we had to wait a few weeks.

When we went back to pick them up, things started to get a little interesting. Both of the kittens appeared to be sick. Their eyes were kind of red and oozy, especially the boy (Boo Boo). Jen had read that when you pick out kittens to take as pets, make sure they appear fully healthy. However, they were both so adorable that we decided to go ahead and take them. We figured we could get them healthy. Here’s a few pictures of them shortly after we brought them home:

The kittens together. Yogi is the darker-colored female; Boo Boo is the lighter male.

Here is a picture of them together eating from their food dish:

A good close-up of Yogi:

And a good close-up of Boo Boo:

We’ve now had our cats for over a year and a half, and we TOTALLY love them. They both have totally great, funny personalities that make them so much fun to have around.

Now, just for the record, I would have to say that I wouldn’t necessarily recommend adopting pets that aren’t healthy. We’ve certainly have had some health challenges with both cats. For example, not long after they came to live with us, both cats got infections in their eyes that caused them to each have an eye swell totally shut. Our wonderful vet checked them out and had to tell us there was a good chance either or both of the kittens might have an eye rupture. However, after some medication and much care, both kittens recovered from these eye infections.

Not that they’re both fully healthy. Yogi does very well, but Boo Boo still always sounds like he has a cold — a chronic condition he picked up as a small kitten. He breathes pretty loudly, kind of like he has really bad congestion or asthma. You can usually hear him coming before you see him. We’ve tried different medications. Nothing has cleared him yet. But it’s not like he’s miserable. He’s a very happy, active cat. Since he’s never really known anything different, I don’t think he even really knows he’s sick.

There are many great stories and experiences with our cats that we’ll share as we get a chance. They have funny quirks that are quite entertaining. But for now, they’re both snuggled up here sleeping on our bed and I think I’m going to do the same. Just in case you’re curious, here’s how they look now.