crazy cat people

Sweet Oscar

Man I feel like I need to clarify what Ben said about our house o' cats. We sound like crazy cat people! OK, so we are crazy cat people...but let me just share how we got this way. First and foremost I have the most tender heart of them all when it comes to animals. Ben always talks about buying 20 acres and building our house on that but I just know it would be all the excuse I needed to take in every stray in the surrounding area. I digress.

So, when Ben and I were engaged we went to Petsmart and saw this super cute black and white cat. He was the last one left and we were told by one of the workers that a 3 legged cat was picked over him - how pitiful is that?!? So, we took him home. He was our first child and since he was already almost a "big cat" he was easy breezy. For those of you who have never had cats, even as kittens you show them their box ONE time and they've got it. No potty training like with dogs. Anyway - our sweet first "child" Oscar went outside most of the time, came in for food and a little love and was content just doing his own thing. That was in October. In May I decided I wanted a kitten this time. Ben and I often talked about how we wondered what Oscar was like as a kitten and so I made up this big fat lie about "hearing" a kitten outside our house when really I called a lady who had an ad in the paper for kittens and picked one up. (read previous posts where I admit to being sneaky) Just like parents say having 2 kids is waaay different than having one, it's true for cats too. This cat, originally named Emmy which somehow evolved into Foofy, was nothing like Oscar. She's moody..."skanky" as I like to call her. Oh and she LOVES Ben. Like, gives me a look like she'd be OK if I died so she'd have Ben all to herself" kind of love. Seriously. So, that was it. Our two cats.We got foofy in 2005 and in the summer of 2006 Ben and I went to eat lunch at toad suck park where we came across Milo.

Sigh. He was living in a pavilion at Toad Suck and was so hungry that he ate our leftover Taco Bell nachos. Needless to say tender hearted Bethany couldn't take it. I talked Ben into letting us take him to our vet, get him fixed, his shots and we'd find him a home. 2 1/2 years later I'm looking at him as we speak across the room. Unbelievable. In December of 2007 Oscar had enough of Jackson and Milo and ran away...or was stolen. At least this is what I tell myself. It's hard for either me or Ben to talk about because he was seriously part of our family and we miss him so much.

But it gets even better...or should I say worse. We were back to two cats. Milo and Foofy. Well, we move to our new location due to Ben's job and around the first week of September Ben finds two kittens, maybe 4 weeks old, outside his office building.

Mind you, there isn't much other than parking lot, street and airport flight line around so we're pretty sure they were dumped. They were so tiny, so malnourished that he couldn't leave them there. It was also going to be a crazy thunderstorm that night so we decided that he would bring them home and we'd feed them, get them cleaned up and find them homes. I did try to find them homes but nobody was looking for a kitten in September. Alas we've added Gus and Jules to our brood. I'm lucky that Milo lives outside 95% of the time and Foofy goes out side from sun up to sun down. And the kittens are still tiny so it's like only having 2 cats. OK fine - we're crazy cat people. At least we have good intentions... right?