Cats

Well, we've had a week full of cat drama around here.

We lost our beloved "Coffee Cat" to a violent dog attack this week. She was quite the cat. [Excuse me if you don't like cats--I'm going to talk about this on this ONE post! ;-)]

Coffee Cat was a beautiful long-haired Siamese stray that lived in our old neighborhood. I wish I had a picture. They were all lost in a computer crash. Sitting out on the porch in the evenings....little by little...she began to trust me. Eventually she got to the point where she would come up for petting. Then she began to choose our house as the "safe spot" to have her MANY litters of kittens. Little by little she adopted our family as her own. She was still definitely a bit ferrel and would never be a house cat. But before long she began to choose our hallway closet as a place to have her litters of kittens. Yes--I allowed this as crazy as it seems! Eventually we saw Coffee Cat enough as our own that we decided to have her spayed. Enough was enough! She and her last two kittens were "fixed."

Then we sold our house. What do you do with a cat that is your cat but isn't really your cat, and her two adolescent kittens? We decided to bring them along to our new house, as much as that probably disappointed our new neighbors. Great! Three new "outside" cats in the neighborhood!

We've been here for 2 years now. Coffee and her children have stuck around. Coffee and one of the kids (Simeon) comes several times a week for cuddles and a stress-free nap on our bed, but nobody could call them completely tame kitties. In fact, one of the kittens has all but abandoned us and never comes around.

On Thursday one of our neighbors knocked on the door to let me know that Coffee had been attacked by a dog. It was heart-breaking to me. I didn't ever expect it to hurt so much if we lost her. After all, she was "just" a stray. But she was a stray that helped my kids learn about the miracle of birth! She was a stray that loved to roll over and let me rub her belly all over. She was a stray that "talked" as only Siamese do, to let me know exactly how she was feeling. And, she is the first pet I've had to see dead since I became an adult.

Seeing her lifeless body was really hard. Holding her was harder. Putting her into the ground was excrutiating. And it all brought to the surface questions about how I would ever live through the process of losing Eric, should the Lord decide to take him home early.

Now to the fun part...

I am "one of those people" who wants to get a new pet as soon as a pet dies. I know maybe that's unhealthy, but I don't like feeling sad, and getting a new pet gives me something fun and happy to think about! So after I got through crying about Coffee, I started looking for a free kitty (one to keep INSIDE).

I am such a sucker though. The lady (a cat rescuer) had lots of kittens and she talked me into taking two. Two! Ack! Eric was so NOT happy about even having ONE new inside cat. He was really pretty ticked off about having two. After a day of hearing him complain about it I told him fine--I would foster the kitties and we would either choose one or I would find new homes for both of them after a few weeks. That was two days ago.

Today my big tough husband that cannot STAND cats has had a kitten on him pretty much all day. I went to take a nap and a kitten was on him. When I got up, same kitten was on him. I make a comment about that and he said, "I don't like cats...but this one is okay." [High praise from the hubby.] He keeps going to hunt them down so he can hold them. Then he'll hand one off and say "Go to mommy." Doesn't exactly sound like a guy who is looking at these kitties as a temporary thing, does it? ;-)

Introducing Bangel and Biscuit:

And the reluctant "daddy" (shot this without him knowing it):

Ha! Ha!
Anita