Callisto and Eris
A house without any cats ultimately turned out to be an untenable situation. After a few weeks of quiet in the house I inadvertently came across a posting at the Lost Our Home Shelter for two orange kitties. Eris and Callisto were a bonded pair that were about 3-4 years old. We have never gone the Kitten route as we both feel we should concentrate on older cats that are harder to place.
Fluffernutter (aka The Tail) we found roaming the street we live on one day. His sudden appearance coupled with being able to walk right up to him had us believing somebody lost their home and after loading up their possessions dumped him in the yard and drove off.
I was bored at work and was watching cat videos and came across a link to LOH and went cruising through the cats, not really looking for an adoption. this picture caught my eye:
Knowing now how shy and skittish Eris is, I have to commend the photographer at the shelter for getting this shot! We went to the shelter on Saturday July 12th to look at them and after fondling all the other cats and kittens it was obvious these two were our new roommates. It was interesting to note that due to genetics, less than 20% of orange cats are female and we have TWO!
The backstory we got was the pair were turned in after their owner passed away, though one other person said the owners had to move across country and could not take them along. It was stated they had to go as a pair and watching them both at the shelter and at home it was obvious that to split them up would be horribly unfair. They were adopted out in early April and returned in mid to late June due to allergy problems with someone in the household.
We brought them home and sequestered them in the bathroom for the night to decompress them a bit. When they came home the "Blankey" they had in their enclosure came with them for something reassuring to have in their new home. We wanted something familiar smelling to come with them and kinda had to ask more than once to get it. We would go in the bathroom on and off the rest of the afternoon and evening and sit with them. they would approach us and Callisto would thread around my legs.
It wasn't long before they were exploring the house. Around 10am Eris flat out disappeared from site and by the time 5pm rolled around we were getting quite worried. The house is leak-proof as far as cats are concerned, but there are LOTS of nooks and crannies to hide in. We commenced a search moving stuff and taking apart the couch only to have her walk out from under Earla's desk to see what we were up to. Tell me a cat has never done that to you...
We had one cat house that we purchased last Christmas for The Tail, which you can see at the right, but bought a new piece of cat furniture for Callisto & Eris. Unbelievably they liked it. My general experience on cat furniture is they would prefer to play with the carton the item(s) came in. Both have a full compliment of hooks and I was concerned about furniture being clawed. Callisto literally shreds the carpet and scratching board on the little cat tree, but we have found no evidence of them clawing where they should not. Eris claws just a little bit on the seat of the dining room chair that is one of here favorite spots, especially after bedtime, so we got a thick bathmat and folded it over and she is happy, as are the two of us.
BTW, these two show virtually no interest in cardboard boxes even after 6 months in the house and are very quiet. Eris will "EEP" a little bit as does Callisto, but it is all quiet polite noisemaking usually centered around us not being quick enough to put out food... All in all they are two extremely well behaved kitties with virtually no bad habits.
We were pleased to see them together on the "furniture" few weeks after arrival. We bought a couple of additional Ring cameras to watch them during the day, you can see one on the table to the left.
An increasingly more common sight in the house, lounging around out in the open.
December 26th 2025 Update
Things are going well with our two new roommates'! Eris comes further out of her shell with each passing month. Callisto's nick name is Lump (or Lumpy) because she is now a certified Carpet Lump. At this point one should best resign themself to stepping around or over her as she ain't gonna move...
I really don't think they get along. Seventeen pounds of cats in a nine pound cat nest. ROFLMAO To the right we see the typical orientation when we are watching TV in the evenings.
This is what my left armrest area on the couch looks like during TV nights. Eris on the right comes to visit me at my desk.
Callisto the Carpet Lump...
The Cat TV Channel has two new subscribers! They have started to enjoy the basking shelf I installed when we replaced the front window many years ago.
Callisto discovers the Ring Camera Eris tossing and turning in the middle of the night
Eris midnight grooming Eris early morning stretching
Callisto Chillin' Callisto getting "Scritched"