The Boys

Smokey

We were at the local pet store picking up a few things for my aquarium when we dediced to go look at the kittens (the pet store had graciouly offered to provide the local animal resuce with space to display some of the cats available for adoption). We hadn't intended to pick one up, we just liked to look.
One of the kittens there was a gray short-hair, with a white bib and white socks. He was a talker and pawing the glass on the front of the enclsoure as if saying, "Look at me. Look at me." The attendant asked if we wanted to hold him. "Sure," we said. When she brought him out she handed him to Angela and he crawled up on her shoulder and there he stayed. As we hadn't intended to pick up a kitten, we played with him for a few minutes and then, with some hesitation, handed him back to the attendant. We finished our shopping and left the store. At home, we started to talk about the little gray kitten. After a short discussion, it was decided that we'd go back the next day an pick him up. That was about six years ago. He's still a talker who loves to curl up on your shoulder.


O'Malley

We got O'Malley about a year after we picked up Smokey. We were at the same pet store, getting more fish supplies when we made the same decision to go look at the cute kittens, which lead to the same result. In one of the enclosures there were two orange and white kittens, one long hair and one short hair. As we were standing there, another couple picked out and decided to purchase the long-hair. That left the short-hair orange and white tabby kitten all alone - a sight my girlfriend could not stand to bear. "He's going to be all alone," she said. "They just took his sister." Clearly I had already lost this arguement so I simply repllied. "Okay." After we got O'Malley home, Smokey started to take care of him and they became good friends. For years Smokey was always the leader of the two but, recently, O'Malley has figured out that he is bigger than Smokey. He doesn't do anything agressive or mean-spirited, he just uses his girth to move Smokey out of the way to get to the food first, or to get the best spot on the bed or couch, or to get some laptime.