Critters In The House Part 2

Katie is responsible for most of the furry pets in our house. This is her cat, Zach. He is just about useless. Typical, I think, for a cat. He's on a special diet because his internal organs are very delicate. I have to spend about $60 a month to keep him healthy. I have to say though that if I had to choose between a cat or a dog, I would choose a cat. They can take care of themselves pretty much and they aren't needy like dogs are.

We had lots of cats over the years. There was even a time when I could have been called the crazy cat lady on our street. There were about a dozen cats living in our garage and I didn't know what to do with them all. New ones just kept showing up. Then they started mysteriously disappearing one by one. Not sure what happened but I've always been suspicious of the coyotes.

It was a cat that made me realize, for sure, that I had married the right guy. We had been married for a very short time when I found this little kitten at work one day. It was covered with fleas and filthy dirty. I ,of course, decided to take it home, but then realized it wasn't just my decision any more to bring home a new pet. I didn't have any idea how Alan would react to me bringing home this kitten. So I stopped at the vet's office first to have someone tell me if it was healthy or not and to clean it up some. The vet gave it a flea dip, pronounced him healthy, just undernourished, and told me he was deaf. I showed up at the house with this little wet, deaf kitten in my arms and Alan was standing at the door. I thought, "OK, this is the moment of truth. How is he going to react?" He walked right up to me and said,"Oh, a kitty!. Let me have it." He took it inside, dried it off, and never questioned the fact that I brought it home. What a guy! We named that cat Oliver, and he was with us for a long time. Oliver had more than nine lives. There are some great stories to tell about that cat.

Right now, we just have two cats. Zach and a cat that lives in the garage that I just call gray kitty. We've had so many cats that I've run out of names.