One day in early 2005, The Husband came home from work at Knott’s Berry Farm and said there’d been a litter of kittens born in the stable and they were having trouble finding homes for them.  Could we take the female when they were weaned?  At that time, we had Gizmo, a female in her mid-teens.  A kitten might be a good companion…  Then he came home another day, begging to take one of her brothers because a forever home had fallen through.  Technically, we were only supposed to have 2 animals at that time, but who was going to know?? 

They were born around the holidays and we got to bring them home around Valentine’s Day.  We set the carrier in the living room, opened the door and waited for them to come out and explore.  The little gray girl came out first, followed eventually by her jet-black brother.  The Husband suggested naming her after a bold woman in literature and we settled on Irene (pronounced Irena), for Irene Adler, the only person who ever bested Sherlock Holmes.  We shortened it to Raina.  To stay with the great detective’s theme, we named her more timid brother Watson.