This spring, I adopted a cat from the animal shelter. Her name was Buddy, and she was black. She was a great cat. Great, at least, until July when she peed in my bedroom. I put her outside so that I could try to get the smell out of the carpet. (Once a cat pees inside, they keep going back to the same spot and doing it again, so I really needed to get the smell out before she could come back in.) Within 24 hours, though, she was hit by a car. I felt (and still do) absolutely horrible. I cried and cried and cried. Dwane said I shouldn't blame myself, because we couldn't have left her in the house to keep peeing. I had no intention of her being outside forever, just until I could get the smell out. When I checked her paperwork after she died, I saw that the shelter had written that she was relinquished by prior owners because she didn't like their dog (which the shelter told me), and that she kept peeing in the laundry room (which I hadn't known.) I'm not sure that I would have ever been able to get her to not pee in the house, and I was so meticulous about her litter box! (By the way, Eben doesn't know that she was killed--he knows that she is missing, but he doesn't know she died. Please don't tell him.)

Today, I adopted another cat. I fell deeply in love as soon as I saw her. A gray tiger named "Foghat". She was named after the "electrified, hard-rocking boogie band" of the 1970s. I don't know that her name fits her personality. Even though she's only been here for 3 hours now, she just loves to lay on my bed, and she rolls over on her back when I walk into the room. (When a cat shows her belly, her most vulnerable spot, she's showing that she totally trusts you.) She purrs and purrs and purrs. She's already used her litter box, too. And, she loves Eben. Eben has even said that he'll let her sleep with him. (He wouldn't let Buddy in his room.) Caleb likes her from a distance, but because she's affectionate, he moves away from her when she tries to hug him.

As much as Buddy was a good cat, I never could really "bond" with her. When I first saw her in the shelter, I thought she was a nice cat, but there just wasn't that "spark". I felt like I adopted her because one of the volunteers "talked me into it." With Foghat, though, it's like Sarah and Alfie. We just go together.

Oh, and by the way, we have changed Foghat's name. Her new name is "Maggie Mae Cuddly Cat Wight". I wanted "Maggie Mae", Eben wanted "Cuddles", and Caleb wanted "Cat". So we just put them all together. Caleb still calls her "Cat", and objects if you call her "Maggie".