In the end...it is still all about cats....

Hinds County Gazette.... January 31
It has been so wet…. I should be up cleaning this house, I have cat and dog paw prints all over the kitchen floor and up and down the hall.
Up until last May, I only just barely tolerated cats…because the cats in my life, had been indoor cats and quite destructive…clawing furniture, climbing curtains. And I guess they were calling themselves getting comfortable, when they would push stuff off mantles…send it to the floor in loud crashes…. and that litter box we won’t even go there.
Daughter Angela was always bringing home stray cats….She even bought one…out of a pet store…it was sick! She was afraid was going to die, if it didn’t get care soon.

So anyway, Two or three years ago, In an effort to rid my shop of mice….I did get another cat, but my dogs scared the liver out of it…. it ran away and did not come back…However I occasionally spot it, through the fence, down at the bottom of the hill, prowling around H&M.
So anyway, I decided to try again…Bob and Betty Kemps cat had a litter of three kittens….They gave me first dibs, I picked the gray and white striped cat. Later Angela and Garrett came they wanted to see the kitten I had chose, so we went down to Bob and Betty’s. “Are you just going to take one? It will be lonesome” Angela asked. I went to muttering, reminding her about me being on “The Budget” and how “it costs money to have cats neutered.”

Have I told you about “The Budget”, yet? It would take a whole column to tell you all about it…but here is what it boils down to. After John died, daughter Angela, the accountant, swooped in and put me on “The Budget” She went to cautioning me, about my spending and how I wanted remember, I needed to have money not only for my day to day expenses, but year end expenses, taxes, insurance, car tags and the like….and incidentals such as tires, oil changes etc.

To make a long story short she put together “The Budget”. And I must say, for not ever being on a budget before, I believe I have done well…it has not been an unpleasant experience at all…In fact it has been quite enjoyable….and enlightening…Just becoming aware of how much money I was spending, and on what….was an eye opener.
So anyway back to the cats…Angela said, if I would take another cat she would pay to have it neutered.

Several weeks later, when we went to pick up my two cats, Angela looked at the kitten that was left behind, “Are you just going to leave that kitten all by its self?”
I again reminded her of my situation involving “The Budget”. I told her I had not seen cat neutering anywhere on it.… One cat neutering was all I could squeeze out of “The Budget”.

Angela decided to pay for the third cats neutering too.
Now then back to my wonderful cats…my intention was, they were to be outdoor cats, to keep unwanted critters out the shop. Also they could… when not in pursuit of mice and moles, serve as yard art… I just, love seeing cats lounging, draped over benches and chasing butterflies…hours of entertainment.

But slowly they have become indoor- out door cats….let me tell you, that’s the only kind to have…they do not need litter boxes and apparently they get all of their scratching and clawing, running and jumping done while they are outside…because when they come in they are content to be ornamental, they curl up on a bed…typically it is on the antique crocheted bedspread in the back bedroom.
But I have come to believe that why my cats are so easy, is this, I have the whole litter, when they were taken from their mommy, they had far less adjusting to do…They had each other.
Call if you need me
Sorry this was so long …I get carried away when talking about my cats.