was thinking about how cats are said to be able to see spirits so like
Julie is walking down the street and finds a box of abandoned kittens or rescues them from a burlap sack in a creek or whatever way you so please, but Julie comes home one day with three traumatised, hungry baby kittens
of course Ray lets her keep them so she and Carlos spend the evening warming them up and getting them to drink while Ray goes out to get toys and beds and litter boxes
Luke, Alex, and Reggie poof in to check on Julie and fall in love with the kittens immediately
Reggie was allergic to cats and wanted one so bad as a kid and is delighted to find that ghosts can't have allergies
but the cats also take a liking to the boys, each choosing one as their favorite (cause cats always have a favorite human)
one is really shy and doesn't chatter much but loves to play; his fur is grey, the tip of his tail and the paws white, as well as the center of his face and the fur around his left eye, and he instantly decides the best place to be is Alex's lap (little pink nose! tiny pink toe beans! Alex has crossed over into heaven)
the black, brown and tan calico tabby walks head-first into the leg of a chair and flops on her side, letting Reggie scoop her up and she licks his thumb with her lil pink tongue and Reggie almost cries
the loudest one of them all, an all-black male with one blue and one green eye and the resolve of a brick wall won't stop mewling until Luke is scratching his head
all three love Julie so much and when the ghosts are busy or when she comes home from school they all waddle over to say hello and cuddle against her ankles
Julie teases the ghost boys into oblivion until they confide their middle names to her, and she names the cats after their favorite human. Alex's kitten is named James, Luke's is named Andrew (or Andy), and Reggie's is named Michelle (a femme version of his middle name, and he also really loved Full House) (middle name headcanon from this post by @trevor-wilson-covington)
Ray was worried the kittens would get into mischeif while everyone was away at work/school but after Julie finally tells him about the band and how much the cats love the boys, it's a win-win situation for all
the boys unofficially get household chores ("everyone has to pull their own weight!" Ray says with the smile of a man who's just adopted three dead teenagers in need of a good father figure)
they take care of the cats while everyone else is gone, feeding them twice a day and cleaning out the litter box
they get collars for the cats to match their ghost's fave colors, and from that point on the cats are (unofficially) officially The Boy's Cats; a pink collar for James, a red collar for Michelle and a blue one for Andy
they won't mention it but the cats help ground the ghosts a little more, they have typical teenage household responsibilities again and a sort-of schedule that makes the afterlife a little more manageable and normal (espessially for Alex)
it's not an uncommon sight in the Molina household to see floating kittens as the boys tidy up, dance to music (the google home can hear them?? they get all music on command?? no explanation but yes) or lounge around; kittens sleeping in the pockets of invisible hoodies, perched on non-existent shoulders or dozing on laps
as a result the cats are incredibly spoiled but thats the way the Molinas do
to outside eyes the cats will sometimes wander around the house aimlessly, but really they are just following their ghost like a little duckling while they do little chores
sometimes the boys will crowd together, tripping over each other's feet as they shuffle around the house just to see the kittens march across the hardwood floors on unsteady feetsies, rolly polly pell mell tumble bumble
Julie will never mention it but it kills her everytime she sees Luke being soft with his fur baby it's just too much for her heart to handle. cute boy talk sweet to kitty make heart go brrr
