WHAT'S NEW? WELL, THERE'S THE CAT!

After my roommate's last cat kicked the bucket last fall, we went through a period of having only one pet. It was, I think, the first time she had gone without a cat for quite a long time. I, however, was happy to be down to one pet. That is, until I discovered that we had more than one pet, after all.

The other pets took the form of horrid little grey things that had whiskers, beady little eyes, and long hairless, tails. That's right. MICE! Mice were everywhere. Without the inbred deterrent that a cat is, they were taking over.

I was in the kitchen last week making a sandwich, heard the pans that were hanging in the cabinet rattle, opened the door and found a good sized mouse just sitting there, taking stock of me and wondering where the hell the crumbs were. That was it. Of course, immediately after that I started finding mouse turds everywhere I looked. Definitely, time for a cat.

We couldn't really get a kitten as we aren't home enough to keep it from totally destroying everything while we were gone. So it was a pound kitty, one year old, short hair and as of yet with no name. Caden is coming over tonight and will have the honor of naming him. I have had a couple of cats in the past that resembled this one. One was named Clayton Jesse Arthur, III. He needed a name that important as he was a Minnesota Snow Cat and had feet large enough to be snowshoes and a body that was prepared for professional cat football. The other black and white cat that I had was named Butch. I got Butch from my friends Linda and Anne when they needed a home for him. Butch was quite a cat. His best friend for a while was a dog named Kahlo who licked him into a fur ball of unimaginable consequences. Butch was also a Buddhist cat. He never killed any of the prey he went after. He very gently would bring it to me and drop it directly at my feet as if to say, "Now what?" He eventually went back to live with Linda and Anne who still have him and his Buddhist ways. No-Name (as I am referring to him until he is properly named) proved his worth by killing his first mouse last night. Unfortunately he has spent today in the position above, resting on his laurels.

We will soon see if he is worth the fur he is printed on. I think he will live up to his start. We got him from the pound where he had been for six months. One of his ears looks like he might have had a scrap or two in his earlier days. He is very loving and immediately identified the food dish and my bed as his favorite places in the house. He is not too sure about Jules. And I will give Jules her props, she just stands back and wonders when this silly cat will get past his attitude and get on with the buddy stuff. I will definitely update as soon as Caden names him and now am fearful that I will be posting those Friday Cat Pix...