why adopting more than one cat at the same time can be important

We first heard of little Danï and Zoë through Love Meow. When we sent an inquiry to Dani Giroux of The Runaways Animal Rescue, she advised that they needed to be adopted together. We’d heard similar stories of how some kittens and older cats needed to be  adopted together. We’d even gone so far to adopt Beau and Luke together in 2015, not so much because the boys needed it, but because they were the only two male Gingers out of their litter and no-one at the time would step forward for them.

Big Dani was right. The little ones turned two years old back on St. Patrick’s day, so they’re well past kittenhood. But they are still as tightly bonded as the day we first brought them home as little kittens. They eat together out of the same bowl, they play together, and given a chance, they sleep together, usually every mid-day after their second meal. Most importantly they’re happy and thriving together.

I’ve never known two cats more tightly bonded than these two, not even the two older male Gingers.

cats and dogs, living together

From left to right, Beau, Danï and Ruby taking a nap

I have never seen anything on YouTube nor read anything on the web that matches our current conditions in this house with our two large dogs and six various cats. Everybody gets along with everybody else. Ruby, the Yellow Lab, has always been a companionable animal with every living creature she’s ever met, including not only our current clowder, but all the first generation cats in this house.

How do we make it all work? Through kindness and fairness. All living creatures understand those two fundamental acts. We are always kind to everyone, and we are fair whenever we do anything positive for the animals. What we do for one we try to do for all in some way. It’s like raising human children. We are kind to our animals and we play no favorites. No creature in this house feels the need to compete with the others for anything.

I wish the outside world were more like this, but as current events show it’s not.