All Cats.....All the Time

I did not like cats until two years ago. One of my teacher friends
had two litters to get rid of. "Come on, your kids need a kitten."
So we went to her house to look at them. "Oh, you can't just take
one. They each need one of their own."

I picked out the prettiest one, a long-haired mostly-white calico.
My #1 son looked into the box of mewing kittens, and a yellow
striped male climbed out of the box and tried to climb up his leg.
Of course, that's the one he wanted. He petted the kitten and
put him back in the box, because they were still too young to take
home with us. That kitten crawled right back out of the box and
sat on my son's foot. Each time we put him back, he did the same
thing. So my son named him "Genius," because he was smart
enough to pick his new owner.

Last summer some redneckier person than us dumped five cats
at the end of our road. We took them some food, because four
were kittens, and the other was about half-grown, but not the
mother. #1 son begged his dad to bring one home, and Dad said
we could take one. It laid around all depressed, so he said we
could get one more to keep it company, since our other two cats
would have nothing to do with it. When we went back, only
two were left, and we couldn't leave one all alone. So that is
how we came to have five cats.

Oh, last fall we brought home another one, but my husband only
said OK because #1 son cried his eyes out at the thought of
leaving it--again it had been dumped at the end of the road.
The deal was that we could keep it until the weekend and then
we had to take it to the Humane Society. I told my teacher
friend that now I had a cat for her. It looked like a Himalayan,
kind of a long-haired Siamese with a dark face. When we
picked it up, it laid down on the car seat like it had ridden
before. It did not like the other cats, but acted like it was a
human and wanted in the house. My teacher friend took it,
and says "Fred" is a great cat.

We have now spent over $1000 on these five "free" cats,
with the spaying, neutering, shots, antibiotics, ear mite meds,
and food.

When I stop for the mail, my kids are required to keep their
windows rolled up. That is because I caught #1 son with his
head out the window, radio turned down.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Cat-listening."

If he can't hear them, we won't have to take any more.