My 200th Post

Wow. A momentous occasion. 200 blog posts. I'm good. Pretty soon my number of posts will catch up to the number of profile views. Which means my number of readers is not very high. Oh well. To my five loyal readers - THERE'S LOVE!!!!

So, we, well, more to the point, I, decided I was ready for a cat. It has been a year since the whole cat bite incident and well, I miss having a furry friend to cuddle up on my lap, to wake me up in the morning, to play with the kids, to just generally be there for us. So, The Hubby reluctantly agreed to let me look. Found a few prospects in the Pennysaver, but he shot them all down. And none were kittens. Newspaper? Nothing. Really. Nothing. Petsmart. One cute cat. Eight months old. How long has he been in the cage? Didn't seem all that friendly. Truth is, after what happened the last time, I was pretty nervous about ANY cat from there. The adoption places just get feral cats a lot of times and after the supposedly "nice" cat bit me, I was really nervous about that. So, we went to the pound. All the while The Hubby is warming up to the idea. A little. He's worried about his leather recliner. So am I.

So we go to the pound last week when he was off of work on Wednesday. They had some tiny kittens. They were on hold. They had this cute black one, but he was just found, so we couldn't hold him, take him, nothing. Well, we decided to put a hold on him (that's the way you do it if they are not available yet) and they told us we could take him out of the cage on Saturday and take him home on Monday, after his little snip-snip. So, we dutifully go over there on Saturday.

Animal Control Person: Oh, it hasn't been five days, so you cannot take him out of the cage. It has to be five days and that will be on Monday.

Me: So, you are telling us that the other person got the dates mixed up and we cannot hold him and visit with him until we come to GET him on Monday?

ACP: Yes. And he will be having surgery on Monday morning, so he will be a little groggy from the surgery.

Me: So, we will have no idea of what he is like prior to taking him home.

ACP: Right. But we offer a two week trial period. So you can bring him back and exchange for another animal if it doesn't work out.

Me: Great.

So we go back to look at the cats. All new faces, it seems, except for Junior. (We already named him, since he looks just like Scooter.) So we find the cage numbers for a couple of other cats. No go. One just came in, so he has to be there for five days first and the other has a hold. THIS IS FRUSTRATING! We leave and plan to come back on Monday between 3 and 6, like they told us.

So I get a phone call this morning.

It's the Animal Control Person.

"This message is for Amy. We couldn't do the surgery on the cat you were going to pick up because he ate food after he was supposed to and the vet didn't want to do the surgery on him. So you can't take him home until tomorrow between 3 and 6."

What a rebellious cat. He chose to eat after being told not to! He was probably thinking, "Hmm. If I eat, they won't do the snip-snip on me. Let me think..."

So, why didn't they remove the food so he couldn't eat? He's only four months old. He isn't going to listen if they say, "Okay Jr., don't eat tonight, okay? Good kitty."

Mm-hmm. Scott described the guy working there as Inbred Jed. Not the brightest lightbulb in the box.

I guess we will go visit Jr. tonight and maybe bring him some flowers or kitty grass. After all, he is having surgery tomorrow.

Actually this is good. The Hubby has sympathy for him and his procedure tomorrow. And we could use another boy in the house.

And he's really cute.

Poor Scooter!

So, my friend was over yesterday and during the course of the conversation, she tells me that the last time we were down to visit her (about two weeks ago), she accompanied Rebekah to the toilet. And Rebekah was telling her about Scooter. Scooter was the best cat I ever had. He was the brother to my dad's cat, Grey Kitty. Dad also has Orange Kitty. Scooter was originally called Black Kitty. My nephew was three when he named them. (As a little aside, when I took them all to the vet for their first shots, the vet asked which one was which. Duh.)

Well, Scooter loved living in the San Fernando Valley, and he spent his days chasing birds and insects, rolling around in the dirt and sunning himself in the sun. He would come in sometimes, but mostly enjoyed being outside. He had spent the first two years of his life as an outdoor cat. He was given to Dad's neighbor, a guy that mainly cared about himself, because he had mice in the mobile home. When John left, he abandoned the cat. When I moved to an apt. that I could take him in at, I went up the mountain and took the cat home. He loved it. Anyway, when we moved to the desert, he stayed inside most of the time. Didn't like it. No trees outside, since we moved into a new house. He liked chasing mice, but we also had coyotes, which is most likely what happened to him, since he just didn't come home one night. Rebekah doesn't really remember him. She was very small when he disappeared. Jessica remembers him and loved him. He would curl up on the bed while she was asleep and take a nap with her. He loved her, too.

Well, occasionally Scooter will come up in conversation. Jess says she is going to cry. Rebekah says the coyotes got him. She elaborated on this in her conversation with my friend.

"Scooter DIED! The wolves got him!"
"Really?"
"Yeah, they tore his feet off and ate them up!"
"Really?"
"Yeah, then they tore his tail off and ate it up! Then they tore his butt cheeks off and ate them up! Then they tore his ears off and ate them up! Then they tore his tummy off and ate it up! Then they tore his nose off and ate it up! Then they tore his BUTT CHEEKS off and ATE THEM UP! "
"Do you just like saying butt cheeks?"
"Yes."

Somehow, I don't think this little girl is going to grow up and be a vegetarian. My friend said she related this story with such glee! It was all she could do to keep from bursting out laughing.

Hmm. The things girls talk about when they go in the bathroom together!