Hi everyone! Our Charlie-dad told us all about the LostWoods kitten tradition so here I am. I’m Corliss and since I’m the best at sneaking into lisa-mom’s office, I got picked to write our story for you.

We are the Joyful litter. We think it’s because we make everyone so happy, or maybe it’s ‘cause we’re happy kittens. But lisa-mom says the real reason for that is she was so happy that we and our Mama-Basia were okay after we were born that she gave us all happy names. All of those things are true, but mostly we’re just happy. Or joyful. Or something.

There are a lot of things that make us happy. Allegra – she’s the only girl -- is happy when she gets to nap on lisa-mom’s lap. She’s also happy when she chases crinkle balls and the red mouse. And, well, she’s positively thrilled with life when she gets to jump off the couch or bed and pounce on someone who wasn’t watching out for her. It’s so funny when she gets Charlie-dad. He get pretty crazy with us, so we all think it’s great when one of us attacks him and makes him jump. Allegra is the littlest of us, but she’s totally ferocious when she wants to be – like when Ken-dad gives her a piece of turkey and one of us wants her to share. Ha! Share? No way!

Speaking of turkey, food, and being ferocious… the one who is really, really, REALLY ferocious is Seely. He loves food (maybe not as much as me, but I’m much politer) and he will not EVER share anything with anyone. Even when there’s plenty of wet food on our plates, if you go near him, he’ll stick out his paw and push you away while he growls at you. Ken-dad laughs at him and tells him to cool his jets when Seely acts that way about turkey. Seely is the troublemaker in our family. At least that’s what lisa-mom and Mama-Basia say. Seely was the one who made Mama-Basia have to go see Dr Jennifer so we could be born. Seely is the one who climbed the tree and wouldn’t come down so lisa-mom had to climb up and rescue him. He really likes to climb – he gets in trouble all the time for climbing up the screen on the door. And Seely is the one who is always racing around, too busy for cuddles. Well, once in a while he’ll cuddle. Just not very often.

Dr Jennifer and Rick were there when we were born. In fact, Dr Jennifer saw us before lisa-mom or Mama-Basia saw us even! So we think it’s cool that she and Rick and are going to be Fayne’s new mom and dad. They come visit us a lot. We like them a lot. Well, except when Dr Jennifer had to poke us with that sharp thing. We didn’t like that much. But she gave us treats so we forgave her. And she loves us, we can tell.

I guess I ought to tell you about Fayne – not his new mom and dad. You probably don’t care about them. You want to know about us! (Anyway, I think that’s what you should care about.) Fayne is sweet sometimes – he likes to cuddle with lisa-mom and Ken-dad at night – but he’s also kinda crazy. He tears around pouncing on things, chasing rattle balls, climbing the cat tree, swatting Charlie-dad… You name it, Fayne thinks it is a toy. Fayne is the best poser, too. Whenever lisa-mom gets out the camera he sits up and poses just perfect. Maybe he’ll go to some shows when he’s big like our Mama-Basia does. Lisa-mom says Fayne looks like his Grandpa Guri. We don’t know him – he doesn’t live here at LostWoods – but lisa-mom says he’s handsome. Besides looking like Grandpa Guri, Fayne does something that's like him, too. Fayne likes to sleep with his paws all spread out and his head flat to the floor.He learned it from Mama-Basia. She says she learned it from her dad, our Grandpa Guri. So Fayne's like him!  

We do have lots of grandparents that do live here, though. Great Grandma Shira is here. She’s the Queen of Everything. Lisa-mom says Allegra sorta acts like Shira and will be the Queen of Everything in her new home someday. Great Grandma Talia lives here, too. She’s kinda quiet and doesn’t spend much time with us. So does Great Grandpa Peanut. We like him ‘cause he’s nice to us. Then there’s our Grandma Kalispell. She likes to pretend to be our mom and take care of us. We’ve only met Grandpa Fin once. He wasn’t sure what to think of us. I think he was more interested in Grandma Kali and Mama-Basia. Anyway, we have lots of grandparents here as you can see.  

I’m not sure what to tell you about me. Lisa-mom calls me her little love-bug, but I’m not a bug! I do love lisa-mom and purr for her all the time. That’s because when I was really little I was frustrated trying to nurse ‘cause Mama-Basia didn’t have enough milk at first. So lisa-mom was feeding me with a bottle all the time. I got so excited and happy when she’d pick me up. I loved her and that bottle of yummy, yummy food! I finally started nursing, too, but I still love it when lisa-mom picks me up. And I still love the food she gives me, even though it’s not out of a bottle. I was the first one to eat wet food and I could eat a whole bunch. But I don’t growl at anyone when I eat. Well, sometimes when there’s deli turkey involved and someone (Seely) tries to take mine, I’ll growl. But not usually, ‘cause I know there’s plenty to go around. Lisa-mom will make sure I have plenty of food. I like playing like everyone else, and I’ve climbed the trees outside a little bit, too. (Not high like Seely ‘cause that would make lisa-mom upset.) I sometimes sleep with lisa-mom and Ken-dad, but I love the fluffy beds, too. It’s always great when I get there first and get the middle of the bed. That’s the best spot!  

So now that I’m thinking about the fluffy bed, I think I’ll go take a nap in it. Lisa-mom will be home soon, and then there will be games to play, cuddles to be had, food – all the best things in life. We’re really happy to be LostWoods kittens!