Sunday, June 10, 2007

I Love Our Cats, However...

I really do...love our cats, that is. We rescued Pepina from the cat shelter on May 2, 2006 and she is about 15 months old now. We resued Marina on May 15, 2007, and she is about 2 months old now.

Pepina and Marina have brought us so much joy...I never would have imagined that they could have come in and just taken our hearts they way they have. They make us laugh when they do things that are so funny, and they make me cry when they are hurting (like after Pepina was spayed and when they both got their shots).

We first mentioned getting a cat after only living here for a few weeks. It was the night before Easter and Ted walked into the bedroom and said, "Don't go in the pantry, I saw a mouse in there. I'm going to Lowe's to get traps right now." Gee, you don't have to tell me TWICE. That was it for me...it was CAT time. Alex and Ted even made up a song:




Larry, the mouse
Living in our house.
Better get your hat,
We're gonna get a cat.




Pepina was such a tiny, sickly kitten at first. Of course we didn't realize she was so sick when we got her, but that's another story. The mouse traps never worked. But Larry had disappeared. I was hoping that perhaps he had escaped the confines of our home and went out to further investigate the fields surrounding our house.

HOWEVER, either Larry made it back in, OR he was in hiding, OR he sent word to all his friends that we were a safe haven for mice, OR something, because we DID have a mouse a month or so later. One evening I suddenly heard Ted yelling at Pepina to "get it!" and then he came and shut the bedroom door and said that "P" was on Mouse Hunt. He had seen one and watched Pepina go right into her stealth mode. Someone opened up our bedroom door and I saw a blur go by and then Pepina. I was NOT getting off the bed, no matter what. Unfortunately she was not able to get that mouse at that time. Later on, around 2 am, though, I heard Pepina running through the hallway. When she does that it sounds like a herd of elephants. She was running so hard that she bounced off the cold air register. I finally felt brave enough to get out of bed, open the bedroom door, turn on the light and look at her. She had a dark string hanging out of her mouth. As I wondered where she got that, I realized what it was...A FREAKING MOUSE TAIL!

I yelled for Ted and he was finally able to get it out of her and he had to dispose of the "late" rodent. We praised Pepina like crazy...she did just what nature intended for her to do. GOOD GIRL P!

She earns a diamond in her tiara for each mouse she gets...she now has SEVEN diamonds!! Her last diamond was earned early on the morning of January 2, so we might be finished with the mice.

(As a side note, I tried to brush her teeth after catching the first mouse because I didn't care for the mouse breath, but that didn't go too well...now we just give her a lot of kitty treats and I'll wipe her teeth off.)

Anyway, I digress...Pepina often comes in the bedroom and sleeps on my chest during the night. She's getting pretty heavy, but that's okay. I love the feeling of her sleeping on me, but she really needs to work on lying still so I can get some sleep. Marina has now discovered that this is the thing to do too. For her first couple of weeks she was in the pantry at night. We had a card table tightly up against the pantry doorway and a baby gate on top of that. She quickly learned to scale both. Around 5 am, I would feel the bed shake and realize that Marina was right there pouncing up the bed to get comfy on my chest. We could never figure out how she got out of the pantry, until Alex saw her do it one night before he went to bed.

Somehow the two "girls" knew to take turns when it came to sleeping on me. Pepina is heavy, and Marina takes about an hour to settle into a comfortable position. In the meantime, she loves to walk around in a circle on me, continually trying to shove her butt into my face. It's difficult to sleep with them on me anymore.

Last night was especially rough for some reason. Marina just couldn't get comfy, and then expressed her displeasure when I rolled onto my side. She finally got up on my upper arm, until I rolled again. When I got up to go to the bathroom, she was waiting on the bed for me to come back. I fooled her! I went over to the recliner! Fast forward 5 minutes....there she was, and then Pepina showed up and they were both lying on me. I got very little sleep last night, so when Ted got up a little after 6, I told him to take the girls out of the bedroom and close the door.

Ahhhhhhhh....I slept until almost 10:00 then! Tonight they will have to sleep out in the living room, or with Alex because I want a good night's sleep! I love them both, I really do, but I also need sleep occasionally!!

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