Everyone Needs a Napkin

My boys have an interesting attitude about our beloved pets. I think they enjoy having them around, but maybe for the wrong reasons. For instance, when our cat, Motzie, wants to get in her bed, she has to earn it by walking like a wheelbarrow, while one of my kids holds her back feet up. This is a cat for heavens sake! Well, I got mad at this, and was giving them a stern lecture on having respect for animals. They didn't hear a single word I said as their laughter was too loud watching the wheelbarrow thing. Once they quieted down and could hear me, I tried to instill in them that the worth of a soul, even a cat's soul, was great. They responded by telling me that they felt the worth of a meal was greater, and the only reason to have pets was for food storage. Not only has this poor kitty been a wheelbarrow, but also a broom, a dust rag (how else do you get the dust off the TV screen?), a place to put used tape, crumb catcher (my 16 year old insists that if he eats 'over' the cat, then he doesn't need to use a plate.), and a napkin (same kid).

We've had a lot of outdoor cats come and go, that's how it is when you live in a rural area around orchards. We have briefly felt betrayed when we have seen our cats "eating out" at the neighbors as if we weren't good enough, however, feeding too many kitties can be detrimental to your reputation. Feeding too many cats can be hard on your budget as well, especially if you throw in a raccoon who has cleverly figured out how to take the tight fitting lid off the container, and a skunk, who we see so full, that he has to lay down to eat. Well, who is going to take a turn to go out to take the food away from the skunk, I ask?

At least the cats have a way of thinning themselves out for the balance of nature. Sometimes it's by way of the fast moving highway right by our house. We've lost plenty of cats on this road. When my boys were little, we would remove the lost pets from the road before my boys could see them and cry their little eyes out, but as they got older we stopped doing that. We knew our kids were okay with the death of a pet when one day we were in the car going to school and we noticed a dead cat in the middle of the highway. It was Bearsy. Before I could say anything, my youngest who was about 8 at the time, said, "there's Flatsy!" (They have a real habit of changing our pets names.) Because it was winter and because Flatsy was frozen, we left him out on the highway. My kids noticed that everytime the snowplow went past, Flatsy would get pushed a little closer to our house until about two weeks later that frozen, flat cat ended up right in the driveway and one of my kids came into the house announcing "Flatsy's home!"

I don't know how to finish this post except to say I personally love animals. Pets provide companionship and true stress relief at the end of a bad day. Everyone should have a pet, and everyone needs a napkin now and then. Have a happy day, readers.