Our House is a Zoo

“Oh look!” The vet assistant said with a smile to the vet while pointing to my lap, “She’s making biscuits!”

“What?!  What is that?!” I asked in horrified wonder.

“It means she chooses you!”

I looked in confusion at the cat now nestling on my lap.

“Well, here then – you take her!” I said trying to offer the cat up to the veterinarian assistant to no avail.

“She chooses you – it’s a good thing, I promise.”

And I looked back to the cat pawing away at my lap.  The one that the vet said appeared to be 5-6 years old and only weighed five pounds.  And eventually took it home.

Our house is turning into a zoo.

Earlier in the month we had agreed to adopt a dog from a foster family.

A puggish looking thing named Penny.

My husband and I laugh at her face a bit – we are thinking her relatives are either

1.      The Dr. from Cannonball Run

2.      Yoda

See what I mean?

Turns out Penny is a happy loving thing.  Totally loves her toys.  And is acclimating well with Molly, our lab.

Not so good – Penny is still learning to potty train..

So, on a frigid, cold day I asked Cate to bundle up and take pretty Penny out for a walk to get her business moving outside.

A minute after going out, I hear the front door open.  Penny is present, but Catelyn is not.  A couple of minutes later, we look outside – to see Catelyn holding a cat.

A thin, gaunt looking cat was trying to stay warm in our bush in.  After one can of tuna (and much discussion) we did what we thought was the right thing to do and took the cat to the vet.

And from the vet, we took the cat home to our 2 dog, three fish, one frog household.

Day 1:

To put it mildly, I don’t know a thing about cats.  The most time I ever spent with a cat was with the one I had to dissect in Biology 2 my senior year of high school.  And even though I had to name every muscle and bone in the cat’s body – I don’t remember much.

And I certainly never witnessed any of the cat’s behaviors.

But after a quarantine of 10 days to be sure the cat did not have rabies, and three meals a day – I would say the cat is doing well.

Day 10:

Of course, the kids love their new pets.  The only problem for me is that Declan likes to have conversations with each of them – so I need to provide each their own voice (you can read about Molly’s voice here).  And I have been scolded for not using the right voice for the right pet.

Now, at night, I sit and read with a cat on my lap.  Figuring the best way to pet it while it sits and makes biscuits in my lap, purring away happily.

Come February, I am totally going to sneak to neighbors’ houses and place any stray animals I find in my house in their front bushes because my goodness –

This place is a zoo!