We are Family

Husband and I have now become 3. We have officially moved from being a couple, to being a family. And before any of our parents start jumping the gun on the excitement front, I am NOT pregnant. It’s much better than that…… We got a cat.

Now for anyone who knows me, among many things, I am not a pet person. But age is apparently making me soft, cos for a while now both husband and I have been thinking about getting a pet. A dog was the first option. We flirted with the idea for a while then Jen, Husband’s assistant, let us baby-sit her dog for a weekend, just to get a feel for the whole thing. It was all going fine, doggy was playful, doggy was well behaved, doggy was walked regularly but doggy also poo’d. And this was the deal breaker for me. Not that he poo’d, but that it had to be scooped up, by me, in a bag every time he did it. It was a very traumatic experience. Once when I took him on his early morning walk, he decided to dump a load in one of the neighbor’s gardens. And it happened to be the neighbor we are less than popular with, Fat Neighbor (not her birth name, just my name for her). Because I am not an excellent pet person, I was very unprepared and had no plastic bag with me. But since it was early and I was sure everyone was still in bed, therefore, no witnesses, my plan was to run, oh yes, a poop and run. But when I got back to the house, husband broke the news that I would have to go back and get it. This was crushing. I almost broke down. The thoughts of picking up dog poo were causing me to want to hurl… bad. I begged husband to tell me he was kidding, I begged, but he wasn’t. So off I went, with bag in hand cursing violently and dreading what was ahead. I located the offending poo and wrapped the bag around my hand and tried to reach. I was standing so far away, I couldn’t reach. For some reason I thought the poo might jump up and bite me, so I kept my distance. Eventually I had to concede and move a few steps closer. I finally got a grip on it and started to sequel at such a pitch that was not audible to the human ear. The stuff was still warm, so f*#king gross. I was trying so hard not to puke. I raced back to the house, again, just in case the poo tried to get out of the bag, and dumped it in the trash. The whole experience ruined my day and absolutely turned me off the idea of a dog for life.

Now I know cats are not everyone’s cup of tea and I use to be one of those people, but Husband had like 50 cats growing up, so he’s a true fan and after spending some time around the brother and sister in-laws cat, I began to realize that they were not too bad. And the fact that they will only poo in a designated box, in a designated place, in a very discrete manner, works fabulously for me. But also a cat fits much better with our life style, They are completely independent and can be left to their own devices for a day or two, just as long as they have food and water. Perfect. So with the decision to get a cat made, we headed off to the Humane Society so we could give a good home to an abandoned kitty.

There were so many cute cats, kitties and kittens. It was so sad to see them all sitting in their cages, abandoned and alone. I wanted to take them all, but we picked this teensy blond kitten who was about 3 months old. Unfortunately he wasn’t ready to be adopted and once he was, he had been promised to some one else. So we got our second choice, a small ginger tabby, about 6 months old, too cute and very chilled. A boy, in case anyone was wondering. We packed him up and took him home.

Because of his ginger color, we determined that he must be Irish, so we gave him a good Irish name. Everybody, meet Fintan.

Fintan is so cool. Once we got him back to the house, we left him off to explore his new home. He followed us everywhere. If we sat down for a second, he was straight up on our lap. While I was lifting weights in the basement he came down and followed me from machine to machine, and was constantly clawing at my booty. This guy loves his bit of booty. It’s such a relief that he’s a people person, cos the house is always busy with traffic. That and the fact that we will need people to keep an eye on him when we’re out of town makes things much easier.

So there you go, Shinks has become a pet person, not just a pet person, but a cat person. Who’d a thunk it??