I've Been Keeping a Secret from you

I'll admit. I've been withholding information from you. We totally have a new surprise in our house and it's been a long time coming. Our early Christmas present comes in the form of another fuzzy. She's cute, cuddly, and super purrrfect! I'd like for you to meet the newest member of the Early family, Pepper.

Pepper has been a long time coming for us. We've been battling with Pickles for about a year now with personality "issues". I'd never call her a problem, but she was keeping us up at night. Scratching on our furniture, sitting outside our door crying incessently, and sitting on John batting at him as he slept. We hated having to put her upstairs at night, feeling like we'd ostrasized her from us. So after consulting many, many friends and our vet, the conclusion was Pickle was bored. She slept all day and wanted to play (with us) at night.

The good news was, there was a remedy. Get her a playmate. The best news is, we've lovingly had Pepper for over 2 weeks now and John and I have slept peacefully EVER SINCE we brought her home.

(sorry for the grainy pic. it's the only one I had)

Because we're such suckers for animals in need, we too, adopted Pepper. She was born on July 29th, making her about 4 months old. So from now on, we'll be adding another birthday party to the bunch :) She loves to cuddle and is absolutely captivated with computer screens. Seriously. I married an IT guy, who sits on the computer most nights with this itty-bitty 1 lb. kitten on his lap and while he works, she follows the cursor, mouse or any movement on the screen. Totally cute. See? Never did I think there was a kitty-geek out there.. until now. :)

The adjustment went really well. Much better than either of us thought. At first Pickle wasn't very excited about the new "addition". She shied away from her and if there was contact, there was a lot of hissing involved. Luckily, that only lasted about 2 days. Maggie could have cared less. She sniffed Pepper a bit and decided, "ok, another one". Pepper, having never met a dog, was very apprehensive of Maggie and would hiss (funniest thing I've ever seen is a baby kitty try and fluff up all big n' bad for a 70 lb. dog) and bat at her. After realizing Maggie could care less about her, they're all living peacefully.

again, sorry for the crap-tastic photo

I'm not typically a parent who dresses her pets, but this little jacket was too cute. And perfect for watching the snowfall. One of her favorite activities.

See? Too cute!

Unfortunately, now that we have 2 cats at home who like to play, and no one there during the day to supervise, the Christmas tree is taking a beating this year. Whoopsie.

Merry Christmas Everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful time celebrating with your families. I'll be spending lots of time with family and enjoying Christmas with my fuzzies. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a white Christmas and being snowed in with John.  I'll be back next week!