Awaiting my new babies

inksphinx posted about her new kitty coming home soon, which reminded me that I've been meaning to post about my anticipated babies.Well, before leaving for Hawaii, we did it. Stephan and I put down a deposit on two yet-to-be-born Burmese kittens from Codicat Cattery, just south of Indianapolis. The earliest date we would have babies ready to come live with us would be sometime in October.The two dogs I grew up with were mutts who showed up on our doorstep, and both cats I've had as an adult, Varda (RIP), and Athena, were animal shelter rescues. I wouldn't have necessarily thought I'd go for a pedigreed animal. But many things led to this decision. This is the long, rambling version.First, Athena has been a little lonely as an only cat, and E., who cares for her when we're away, thinks that some of her eating finickiness might be because she misses Varda, who died in November. Athena is definitely an alpha cat and my first instinct was not to bring another cat into the home, because she deserved to not be displaced or feel displaced as top cat.Athena and Varda, who came into the picture a couple years after Athena, never really became best buddies, but Athena learned to tolerate her, and did stop some of her obnoxious behavior (like knocking pictures off the wall) because she had a little sis to beat up on. But the day I brought Varda home from the animal shelter, Athena was mad enough to kill me. Did I want to go through that again?Every time I take Athena out on her leash and harness, she really wants to approach the feral cats we're caring for, that we had spayed and neutered by Indy Feral. They always run away, possibly because of the two-legged creature on the other end of Athena's leash. We have four feral cats: two female dilute tortoiseshells who are sisters, and the two surviving kittens of one of them, who are both a Siamese or Birman mix, with blue eyes, white fur, and grey on their faces, tails and paws. They sure didn't get this from their mother. They're adorable, so I started researching what breed they might have gotten from their father. My guess is Birman, because they don't have the pointy shape of Siamese. The boldest of the two, Shasta, will let me pet him and scratch his neck before I fill up their bowl, while his brother, Shankar, hisses and swipes at my foot with a paw. I'm not fooled, though. Shankar will let me pet him while he's busy eating and not complain. Their mom and aunt, Maddie and Addie, will look at us, but not come very close.When Athena had a kidney infection and I had to take her to the Vet several days in a row, I flipped through some of the issues of "Cat Fancy" magazine reading breed profiles. Here's the profile I read about Burmese cats: Burmese Breed Profile Burmese caught my attention because the description of their typical personalities sounded just like Athena: curious, people oriented, extremely trusting, etc. She's my first cat, so I attributed her characteristics, naturally, to my superior cat raising skills, but the truth is, she was outgoing even when she was in the shelter, which is what attracted me to her. Though I looked at profiles of other breeds, everything I read about Burmese sounded like my type of cat.I realize that getting a shelter cat is something of a crap shoot, because you don't know whether they were born wild or if they will hide under the bed when people come over. You can't guarantee personality with a pedigreed cat either, but maybe you have more of an idea. So I decided to look into this.I found Codicat by doing a web search, and went down there with Stephan just to see their current kittens, how they were cared for, and learn about Burmese cats. They were darling. The kittens and the 15 year old great grandma, came and sat on our laps. The breeder, Karen, cares for them very lovingly in her home and I was really impressed.They're not cheap. On the way home, I mentioned our "tax rebate" (don't even get me started on that subject) which we would be getting soon, in a completely unrelated conversation. Stephan said, "that's just enough for two kittens." I was already thinking I wanted to do this, but hadn't talked things over with him yet and wasn't sure he'd feel the same way. That convinced me, though I still wanted to sleep on it before putting down a deposit. My only concern is how this will impact the grand dame of our household, Athena.One thing I will not do is shut Athena out of the bedroom to make room for the kittens. She sleeps next to my head for part of the night, and if this means we have to keep the kittens out of our bedroom (hopefully temporarily) to make her feel more comfortable, so be it. The two of them can keep each other company if she's grouchy with them, and maybe give her something to do, imparting her wisdom (or a few smacks upside the head) to the next generation.I decided to get two together because watching how close-knit our feral family is has really impressed me. Athena and Varda were never as close as I would have wished. Two cats who are already family should be better able to pal around and keep each other entertained when we're away.I hope that we've made the right decision and things go ok with Athena and the new babies. She's 17 and I don't know how much longer she will be with us. Losing Varda was hard enough, but Athena has always been "my baby" and a dependable source of unconditional love. I'm afraid I will compare all future cats to her and find them lacking. But at least this way, we run less risk of finding ourselves completely catless, which would be hard to take. And maybe, just maybe, our grumpy old cat will teach the young'uns a couple of things, and her accumulated wisdom will live on even after she's gone.