the best present

If you asked your children what the best present they ever got was, what would they say?

These cats - Cocoa and Oreo - were for the girls' 7th and 5th birthdays, last year.  They have been a lot of work - and expense - but they have brought so much joy to our life.  Taylor loves her cat (yes, the one trying to wriggle out of her arms in the pic) so much that she asked if Cocoa could wait to go to Heaven until she does bc she always wants to be with him.  And yes, someday (good things cats can live a long time) the girls will have to go through saying good-bye to Cocoa and Oreo.  I'm hoping it will be the only lesson in death they have until they are much older. (Wishful thinking I am sure - but Kevin was a married man with children when he lost anyone special to him, his Pop).

Chillin' after school.  Being around people all day is exhausting for a Tater Tot.  

Oreo loves his mommy so much.  The rest of us he's not sure about.

I'd love to know what the best present your kids ever got was.  It might surprise you what their answers will be!  You may think it will be the Ipod, but maybe it's the time you took them to throw rocks in the lake and have a picnic lunch with a birthday cake.  You might think it would be the Wii, but maybe it's the time you actually said yes ( I haven't yet) to having a sleepover birthday party.

I personally can not remember what my favorite birthday gift growing up was.  I can remember Christmas, but not birthday gifts.  But what I do remember is that for many years my dad would help me make a heart shaped birthday cake, and we'd decorate it together.   My mom has some kitchen-cleanliness issues, and didn't let me help in the kitchen much.  My dad had some other issues, and time with him could be fraught with tension.  But all I remember about those times was the thrill of baking and decorating that cake, and it was fun and carefree.  Precious memories to me now.

Sometimes the best gift you could ever give - or receive - costs nothing but time, thought and love.  These cats on the other hand, are costing me tons.

But they are earning their keep.  I mean, look how sweet he is with Taylor.  It must be confusing to him, to have a mommy that acts like a cat but looks like a human.

The funky smell

I am very discouraged that my Sunday afternoon is going to be all about trying to find the source of a funky smell in my downstairs.  One of the cats have peed somewhere.

Why oh why do we have 3 cats.  I know why.., but I'm not feeling it today.  So much cat hair, expense, mess...and smell.  I try so hard to keep my house from smelling like a cat-house, you know the ones where you walk in and immediately smell cat litter and cat food.  Yuck.  Friends have told me that it doesn't...and even my mother-in-law said it doesn't smell, and I think she would have told me if it did.

Today it smells.  Oh well...I think while I'm down there I'll wash the curtains, dust, clean the windows and vacuum really well.

I'll also fantasize about ripping out the carpet and throwing out our old furniture, but like I have mentioned on here, I'm trying to keep my house-fantasies under control.

Once I get the house cleaned up, I'll remember how much I love those naughty kitties, and I'll be happy again that we brought them home last October.

to be, or not to be...a cat.

These are 2 out of our 3 cats - Oreo and Cocoa.  They are brothers and they love each other desperately. Practically every day I am thankful we brought both of them home - what would one do without the other?

Our 3rd cat isn't in this picture - Maela, our original kitty - because she hates the above 2.  We followed the vet's advice about how to transition Mae to the change in our house, but she didn't buy it.  Oreo and Cocoa initially tried to play with her, involve her in their scampering and what-not, but she'd respond by swatting her little declawed paws at their faces and this excited them.  So now they do things like jump on her from behind, and surprise attack her from around corners.  This happens most often when they're hungry, which annoyingly begins around 5am.   Before you feel too badly for Maela, let me tell you that none of their antics go unpunished, and because she's a girl, she's also passive aggressive.  Her favorite so-there move is to ask to be let out and then sit on the other side of the door all cute, looking at the boys.  We don't let them out yet, and she knows how much they want out.  Tease.

Do you remember in grade school, the question of "if you could be an animal which would you be?"  This is actually a really hard question!  Don't make fun of me, hear me out.  If you're a dog, you get to go on long walks, play frisbee, swim in a lake...it just seems like it'd be a good time.  If you had good owners, that is.  A bird can fly wherever it wants and enjoy everything from a perch on a tree.  A hamster has a wheel and a brain the size of a pea, so it thinks the wheel is amazing.  A frog gets to sing and live in a lake.

But a cat...wow they have it made.  Again, if they have good owners, and as I have seen with the kitties, if they have their sibling.  They snuggle and do everything at their own pace.  If they don't want to come out when you call them, they don't.  They answer to no one.  But if they feel like it, they're your BFF.

Sometimes I wish I could just ignore someone calling my name.  Sometimes I wish I could spend the day curled up with familiar softness, have my face licked and sleep the day away.  Sometimes I wish I answered to no one, unless I felt like it.

You have to admit, doesn't that sound good once in awhile?