A Legal Cat House...

Yes, it's true....I have the potential to become the "cat lady"...

22 years ago, I met a wonderful man. I knew he was the one. The first time I was invited to his home, I learned he had a cat. Sitting in front of a beautiful fire with romance on our minds, I suddendly realized that there was a big hairy animal staring at us. Muffin the cat.

Growing up with out animals, I've always had what my dad called a "healthy respect" for them. I called it plain old fear. (I used to cross the street to avoid a dog on a leash!)

As I looked into the big blue eyes of the one, all I could think of was "how can I date him? He has a cat!" As things progressed, Muffin and I tolerated each other and soon I was living with this animal called Muffin. About 14 years later, Becky got a little black kitten called Milo. When she moved from one apartment to another, she learned her new place did not allow pets. Having toughed it out with Muffin for so long, and seeing this cute little black thing, to Terry's surprise, I volunteered to take him in. Muffin and Milo never became good friends. A few years ago, Muffin moved into the big litter box in the sky. Milo was in his own version of heaven, too.

This summer, one of Terry's co-workers found some ferral cats - you know the ones that are legal to shoot if you see them skulkin' around? There was a litter of kittens with the mom. So after a few weeks, in apparently what animal people call "pet shelters" we adopted 2 of the kittens, Simon and Sammy. Now, I've also been told that if you have more than 3 cats, you are considered one of those eccentric "cat people". Not looking for a title like that, I'm sticking to the limit.

Sammy and Simon play while Milo tolerates the new kids.

For 2 weeks we kept them in a separate room so they and Milo could get aquainted. (yep, read up on all this nonsense on the Internet to Terry's chagrin!) Once they were released to roam the house, they hid in the storage room downstairs for almost 3 weeks! We could get them upstairs by bribing them with wet cat food. As you can see from the pic above, Milo must have eaten the majority of it.

The kittens have officially taken over the bed. All day. All night. Did you know cats sleep most of the day so that they can leap around like kangaroos all night long? They think human arms and legs are like small diving boards from which to spring. Only tolerable because they are so damn adorable. For now.