Saturday, July 18, 2009

Our New Baby

We have a new baby in the house. He weighs in at a whopping four and a half pounds, has too big ears for his little head, is covered with black-spotted white fur and meows. His name is Oreo.

My kids have always been cat people. Ever since Alex was very little, a dog could pass him by and he wouldn't look twice. But see a cat and he was instantly enamoured. This could be due to the fact that our first baby was a rescued terrier that left a scar on my husband's side because he dared get back into bed one night. The kids were told since the day they could get around on their own, "Don't go near the dog. Don't touch the dog! No dog!!" We must have turned them against canines altogether.

Anyway, we had lost our rescued senior kitty after only having her for a couple of months (that is another story for another time) and were desperate to start again. Or at least, the kids and I were desperate. Glen, I am not so sure. We attended a grand opening event for a local shelter with the hopes of bringing home a brand new kitten to love and nurture (Again, these hopes were definitely held by the kids and I...Glen was attending with the intent of researching the option.) only to find most of the kittens had to go home in pairs (too expensive) and there was a waiting period. We left the shelter dismayed. Glen seemed fine with it. He kept saying things like, "This time we are going to take our time, not rush in and do it right." Because my adoption of geriatric cat #1 was rushed, impulsive, and just wrong I guess.

Glen and I drove around our dream, someday when we are older and rich neighborhood and as we were envisioning our future, I slipped this into the conversation, "Why don't we take a look at a pet store. Just to see." And surprisingly, he agreed. Everyone was starving but we all decided to visit the pet store, take a look and then get dinner. No big deal. We reached the store and before exiting the car, good old Daddy did his Daddy job, "Remember, no rush. We are NOT getting a cat. We are just LOOKING."

Upon entering the pet store we saw that right there in the window were three, frisky, adorable kittens. Upon exiting the pet store, there were two in said window and one in Glen's arms.
Since that day each one of us has fallen hard for this little furball. And he in turn has fallen for each of us. He craves affection, purrs the moment he reaches our laps, and has quickly become part of who we are as a family. He participates in all family activities; he eats when we eat, sleeps with us each night, plays, watches movies, and even joins us every night for story time. He even puts up with Emma who has assigned herself the role of momma cat. She spends her days carrying him around in her arms like an infant, his face looking up at hers. She lays him in his bed and says "Night, night, kitty." Places him at his dishes and commands him to eat and puts him in the litter box to "Go potty." She has even included him in her new favorite activity: tea parties. She sets him up alongside her stuffed kitties with pieces of birthday cake, pizza and "hoffee" (coffee). I thought for a while that he must despise her but one day when I got out of the shower and heard her crying when she had woken up from her nap, where did I find him? Right outside her door.
So, welcome to our crazy home, Oreo. It's been so much fun seeing the kids with you over the past couple of weeks. I look forward to watching all of you grow up together. Hopefully, someday, when you have reached the esteemed senior citizenship of life, you will be purring on my lap while we sit on the front porch of our Victorian, surrounded by our family and listening to the sound of the waves and smelling the ocean air of that neighborhood that Glen and I once dreamed of so long ago.

3 comments:

Diane said...

The cat bed was adorable. We are cat people too!

Kari said...

CRAZY cute!!! I had a rabbit named Oreo. Have fun with the new kitty.

Mary Sheehan Winn said...

I Love cats and this is one lucky kitty.
I had a white cat who very much resembled your kitten. She left for heaven last November at the age of 15. I still have my awesome angora male , Wendell, 13, who is my husband's and my favorite guy. Your stories about your cats and kids are great.