Cat? I Didn't Order a Cat.

Most of you know our dogs are gone now. I was very impressed with the rescue lady who took them in. She crate trained and obedience trained them and found them new adult only homes.

I was sad about the dogs but also a bit relieved. Obviously the biggest relief was not having to worry about my son being bitten. I know it's silly but any dogs around my son make me nervous now, even the nicest ones. I find myself wondering when the wolf within will decide my son is too darn annoying and snap.

The dogs also needed a level of attention that I never seemed to have time for and I was always consumed with guilt. Dogs are wonderful creatures, filled with unconditional love but so darn needy. They are like an insecure high school relationship. "Are you sure you love me? Prove it and scratch my belly. Hey it's been five whole minutes since you scratched my belly! Say you love me, dammit!"

We also no longer had the need to find somebody to dog sit while we left town.

We were done with pets for now and that was okay. My kids keep me busy along with the never ending piles of laundry and dishes.

I'm going to meander off a bit here and explain about my daughter and the bus. I am a stay at home mom so I pick my kids up at school. My son is too immature to ride the bus and my daughter can meet me outside his classroom to be picked up at the same time.

But my daughter wanted to ride the bus. A bus ride costs a dollar. The minimum purchase is a packet of ten tickets for ten dollars. I told my daughter if she wanted to ride the bus, she had to pay for it out of her own money. So she did.

The first or second day my daughter rode the bus, a cat followed her home. Then it followed her in the house. I picked kitty up and noted she didn't weigh much more than a feather. I put her on the porch with a can of tuna. My daughter went with her.

When my daughter came in the house again, kitty pushed past her. I put her out again. She screamed at the door. MEOW MEOW MEOW!

I felt awful but a cat has to be a two person decision and my husband was adamant on no pets. I had been adamant also but it's a bit harder to stick to your guns when the animal finds you.

The kids and I decided to help the cat find her house. We walked down the driveway and the cat followed. She followed us all the way down the street meowing at us. We took her to where my daughter had met her on the street parallel to ours. I found a man outside and asked him if the kitty belonged to him. He said he thought she belonged two houses down and he had found her in his garage before.

We walked two houses down and knocked on the door. Nobody answered. The cat continued to follow us like we were her only friends in the world. She went in the yard and around the side a bit.

I grabbed the kids and told them to run for it. I knew she would follow us home if we didn't. The cat saw us run off and started crying. I felt horrible, like the biggest jerk in the world, but knew we had her back in the right area.

The next week she followed my daughter home again. I made her stay on the porch. My daughter stayed with her. We had to run an errand and we left her on the porch. When we came home, she was gone.

Then last night, at nine, we heard meowing on the porch. MEOW MEOW MEOW MEOW! I felt horrible again. My husband instructed us to ignore it. He held out for about two minutes.

We got some hamburger patties out of the fridge, let her in and fed her. I found a container suitable for a cat box and some old cat litter.

The cat ate like she hadn't seen a meal in some time and made herself at home. She and I will have to have a talk about this habit of waking me in the middle of the night to get petted though. We also need to talk about waking everybody at seven in the morning screaming with hunger.

She does use a cat box. Hooray! When she decided to sharpen her claws, it was on my ten dollar Big Lots area rug. I can live with that.

She hasn't showed the urge to leave yet. The kids are busy following her around the house so she might be feeling the urge soon. We will be watching for signs around the neighborhood about a lost cat who hoovers food like Marlon Brando at the Hometown Buffet.

So we seem to have a cat for now...