It was the usual thing, "cats are sisters, must be adopted together".
They don't even like each other!
They were owned by an old woman in Tennessee, and when she passed away, the heirs gave them to a kill shelter. There's a group in Massachusetts with a name like Cat Connection which imported them, without having a place lined up yet. Then they posted "cats need home" on the usual Facebook type places. I called the organizer and tried to find out the most important thing (litter box behavior) and the second most important thing (lap cat). Litter box behavior got a thumbs up, and they didn't really know about laps. They said these cats were at least not completely hiding from them and being normally curious and somewhat friendly; since they were in a temporary location that they'd only been in for a few days, and they'd had a traumatizing transportation experience, I really couldn't expect anybody to know anything. I agreed anyway.
Mia, after an initial hiding under the bed kind of adjustment period, has turned into a decent lap cat, though she is fairly skittish, and will jump off of that lap when somebody opens the door or walks through the room quickly. She also is one of those cats which has the bad habit of letting you know she's done being petted by giving you a nip.
Sophie is much bolder, but does not like your lap. She likes your computer keyboard and other such things. We are still coming to an agreement about where she should be when she's on my desk. Mostly, I'm losing this argument.
Sophie is photogenic and has been getting most of the #Caturday action on Mastodon. Mia always stops being cute as soon as you move around in order to get the photo.
Sophie:
Mia:
Sophie learns to use the computer: