I think that were I able to post as I Think about posting my posts might be more interesting and Definitely about 800% longer. These may or may not be good things.
So.
I was given the head’s up by my BIL that we were going to be going on our Spring Break vacation with their family. Which is interesting, given the fact that a.) I don’t have a job to help pay for this vacation, b.) Given the current state of the state, I really have no desire to go on a vacation, c.) There had been no discussion whatsoever about going on vacation. (Granted, this is exactly Why the BIL informed me of this before he called to find out birthdates in order to secure tickets.)
Without going into all of that (that may or may not be the reason for all of the passworded entries. All I’m sayin’.), I give to you my FB update from Sunday that, thankfully, everyone managed to ignore due to its normal-for-me cryptic nature: I’ll see your undiscussed Spring Break trip and raise you not one, but TWO…Cats.
Two New Year’s Eves ago, I succumbed to Elise’s pushing and found myself in need of getting one cat that was featured on the Humane Society website. So I packed up the urchins and headed down to find this specific cat. Which, I thought I had, but upon grabbing the paperwork, realized that what I thought I had been bonding with was actually a Male lookalike cat and not the female one which I had my sights set upon. (I truly believe this made a difference, in hindsight.)
I went back and forth and back and forth as to whether to go with the lovely male cat that we had spent time with or the seemingly fine female cat that seemed ok with the shorter period of time we spent with her. She had a cool name, which was part of the initial attraction, so we ended up with the female cat.
Which was then taken by the crazy cat lady who lives…kitty-corner (heh.) from us.
It started out innocently enough once spring arrived, with her stopping me on my way to church one morning with the comment that we really needed to get a bell for the cat’s collar, as she was spending time in CCL’s yard and scaring/eating the birds that hung out there. (Unfortunately, our other cat must have also spent time there, which must have prompted the other cat to follow.) It was a little awkward, as we are outdoor cat people and it’s pretty hard to keep a cat confined without a leash or a fence–neither of which we have.
We then began to miss this cat and found that CCL was falling hopelessly in love with our cat, but not going to take responsibility for her actions. She started by letting her inside. Because she just sat looking in her house, for heaven’s sake! But I’m Certainly not feeding her! Which then, of course turned into days at a time being gone, which led into the next winter, which led to many, many phone calls back and forth…us asking for her to put the cat out, her telling us it was So Cold and she couldn’t Possibly, but we could come over and get Our Cat, to the cat being insane wanting outside, to the whole thing happening over again. We still don’t understand how this cat could want out of our house so badly, but not want to be let out of CCL’s house. There was definitely animosity between our older female cat and this one, but given the fact that they never really had a chance to bond, I guess maybe it makes sense.
I had a knock-down-drag-out passive-aggressive fest with CCL last winter, basically having to hear for the millionth time what a Wonderful cat she was and how much she had helped her through the winter and I told her that, yes, that’s pretty much why we bought her and if she was ok with taking my children’s cat (so obnoxious and pretty much untrue) then there really wasn’t anything I could do about it.
We saw the cat on and off throughout the summer, when she would show up on the railing at our front door to come in, eat three bites of food and then demand to be let back out. Haven’t seen her now since probably Thanksgiving, if not before, and figure we won’t see her until the temperatures are consistently above 50.
However.
That need to get a new cat (and work on my own crazy cat lady license) became fast and furious (due to the undiscussed Spring Break trip? I don’t know.) and after the Bits was returned after a playdate with her BFF on Saturday, I plied the urchins with tales of cats and kittens and loaded them into the car castle to go procure cats. Yep. I pretty much knew that we would come home with two cats. Under the guise of ‘one for each child’.
I was apprehensive, as there weren’t many cats on the AHS website, which I thought was kind of odd, but apparently, those cats are going like hotcakes.
There were Very few cats to choose from (compounded by our ‘males only to not create havoc with the Grande Dame of the house’ rule) and no ‘true’ kittens at all. We narrowed it down to three…One four-month old that the Bits loved, one black 2-yr-old (which fit the bill in the ‘buy one, get one over the age of one free’ category) and one fluffy gray one that I tried to talk everyone into.
We spent time juggling between the three in the private rooms where I finally listened to the cats rather than what I Thought I wanted…The gray one was ok, but the black one, upon the second visit, cemented its selection by plopping itself into my lap. I knew that telling the Bits no on her selection was futile and it seemed like a spunky little thing, as most kittens are.
So I am now dealing with one lovely, but Highly Vocal (all fricken-fracken night long) two-year-old and one Highly Energetic kitten that are trying to fit in with the cranky old broad who has been delighted to be the only cat here for the past couple of years. I keep trying to tell her that the other two seem perfectly content to not stalk and attack her like the previous cat, but so far she’s making sure that the new boys understand their place in the household.
I’m sure that I’m certifiably insane for suddenly having three cats (and am doing my best to consistently clean out the cat box so that unlike the last time we had three cats, people won’t Know that we have three cats), but I guess that by having three cats, it gives me additional time to fully embrace the crazy that will be necessary once the urchins are gone and I end up living alone with forty cats in my 800 square foot apartment.
Hey. At least it won’t be a tiger.
ak
