So. Funny Story...

So as you may or may not know by now, there was a stray in the neighborhood. It was a young, fairly nice looking cat, and my neighbor took pity on it and set up a little box on her porch because it's a bit chilly out. She, however, is severely allergic to cats, so keeping it was out. She spread the word in the neighborhood, and while I felt a twinge of pity for the poor thing, I was certain we didn't want it.

Apparently, I was alone in my thinking on that one. Last Saturday, I was studying in my room while the kids were in and out playing with friends. After a few hours, I came downstairs, and what did I find?


Does this more or less resemble a cat bed to you? As well it should. My daughter, in her 8 year old heart of generosity, set up a bed with towels and an umbrella in the garage. She had fed the cat a can of tuna and a bowl of milk. For real.

So what was I supposed to do now? Really. I wanted to know. So I put it up on FB, and was blown away at how many people told me to keep it and name it. I thought it was a joke. Nooooo... no joke. I conceded, just for the weekend. The shelter was closed, and it was cold out. So we went and bought a disposable litter box, and some Kashi cereal real cat food, and let the thing hunker down for the weekend. My daughter took great care to organize Daddy's garage as follows:

So the weekend passes. What happens? Everyone decides the cat is awesome. A few people even help clean up its litter box. Whaaaaat...??? No lie. Monday rolls around, and the shelter is still closed. By Tuesday, I'm tired of buying disposable litter boxes. So I take the cat to the shelter. My man and I have talked back and forth all weeekend about maybe, possibly, why don't we consider, here's a wild and crazy idea, keeping the cat. I run this by the woman at the shelter, just on a silly whim. She is all in favor of the idea. She tells me she has to post the cat for 48 hours to see if anyone claims it. At that point, we can come back and adopt the cat.

Which we do.

Of course it needs to be spayed, so we leave it over the weekend. It gets all its shots and other important things done, and returns to us wearing the cone of shame. We pick it up, and suddenly, just like that, we are now the owners of the cat. Since it has the cone, it can't go through the pet door we are going to install, so we have to keep the cat in the downstairs bathroom. So my bathroom looks like this: (*please note happy child)

Also, the downstairs bathroom is off limits for HUMANS. Cats can use it all they want, but apparently, WE cannot:

She is actually a lovely cat. She is very affectionate, mellow, and so far, obedient. She needs a name. But at least now she has a home... because I am a SUCKER generous and loving mom.