Josh and Maya are siblings, adopted together at 13 weeks old.

Many shelters and rescues will no longer adopt out a single kitten unless there’s already a young cat at home. Having a buddy helps with the behavioral and emotional development kittens needs. Reasons why adopting kittens together is a great thing:

• Social Animals - cats enjoy the company of their own species. Oftentimes, kittens are adopted together as siblings so they already have an established relationship. Sometimes rescues pair kittens of similar age together. My Luke and Lily were paired together at 5 weeks old, and have a very close relationship, similar to Josh and Maya, pictured above.

• Entertainment - Indoor cats can become bored and lonely. Kittens have a ton of energy, and need a lot of stimulation and play time. Having a 2nd kitten lets them play together, wrestle and have a partner to run around with. This works out great when guardians go to work or away on vacation since a cat sitter's visit is typically brief. Two kittens running around together is also very entertaining to watch.

• Play Aggression - two kittens will play with each other. Cats have a strong prey drive and need to practice hunting. With one cat, they can stalk and pounce on their owner, if they don’t get enough directed playtime. With 2 kittens, they always have a playmate.

• Training - Kittens also learn from each other. As observational learners, if one picks up using the litter box first, the other will see his sister doing it, and likely follow suit. When they are playing together, they also learn bite inhibition by testing out boundaries on each other. This benefits you by having a kitten learning not to bite.

• Older pets - If you have an adult cat at home, adopting 2 kittens may be a better option so that they will play with each other and not bother the adult cat as much. When I did this, my senior cat, Abby, really enjoyed watching the kittens, but they knew to leave her alone (she would bop them on the head if they came too close).

• No introduction process - many times people realize they want a 2nd cat, and then they have to go through the slow introduction process to properly introduce the new cat to the resident cat. This can be tricky. By adopting 2 siblings or buddies, you don’t have to go through this.

• Two times the cuteness, cuddles, and love!

I’ve seen this first hand as I’ve adopted kittens in pairs. It makes a huge difference in their level of happiness. Some argue that your cat will bond better with you if they are single. I strongly disagree with this argument. Paired kittens should have no issue bonding with their guardians. Just like us, they can have multiple relationships in their lives.

Luke and Lily in their first week home with us, above.

Below, Lily grooms Luke.

They are still very close, 4 years after the adoption.