a realization.

I need to tell you something that I have recently discovered about myself, but I don't want you to judge me too harshly when I admit this...

I'm not a pet person.

Do you still love me?

I know, I know, I have 2 cats. And, I have posted about them and their antics and how we find them amusing.

Like when we brought them home.

Or how much they love each other.
And how weird they are.
They really are.

But, here's the thing...

I have no intentions of having any more cats after these two. Which, knowing the longevity of cats lives, will be a long while before I have to worry about it.

When we moved to DeKalb, we left behind our childhood pets. Both sets of our parents still had cats that Evan and I had gotten when we were kids. My mom and dad had Pebbles, my black and white cat I'd gotten for my 9th birthday. She was a kitten from my Aunt Betty's cat and I had seen her the day she was born. When she was old enough to leave her mother, I got to bring her home and introduce her to my other cat, Katie, that I'd gotten in kindergarten. Both cats were mine (as in, I named them, I claimed them and they both hated my sister because she's not a gentle person). Evan had left his cat Tuxedo home at his house, the cat he'd picked out in 4th grade and named.

But, neither one of us were really in charge of the cats. I never had to feed mine or change their litter or take them to the vet or buy their food. Neither did Evan. We just both knew we'd grown up with cats and loved having them.

It's a giant difference when you're the grown up with the pets. (You are all rolling your eyes at me now, aren't you?!)

I hate changing the cat litter. Evan flat our refuses and as a compromise, he's in charge of all diapers when he is home if I do all things cat litter related. (Yeah...um...that's a pretty sucky deal once Julia's potty trained...huh...). I feed them, I water them, I take care of them. And they drive me batty.

Especially Roosevelt. He's sooo smart that he needs things to entertain him or he gets bored and starts getting mischievous. He'll chew plastic, he'll try to climb in the garbage can, he will fish things out of the garbage disposal, etc., etc.

But, he's very good with kids. Julia has decided to claim him as her own. She will pick him up and carry him around all day long. He doesn't care. He doesn't fight her or bite her or anything. He just stays limp and lets her pretend he's a doll. And if he has had enough, he gently puts his teeth on her. I've watched him. He doesn't bite her or try to draw blood. He's just saying, "I'm done."

I am thankful that we brought them to the same house, because the stupid cats adore each other. They sleep together and wrestle and run laps around the house. They don't fight and never have. They are both very laid back. If for some reason we ever did have to find them a new home (say, if we were to be stationed overseas and couldn't bring them with us) they'd have to be adopted as a pair by someone else. They're BFF for life!
And, as for Figaro, we're all he knows. We brought him home as a kitten. And, while Evan finds him the most annoying (only because Figaro loves me more than him), Figaro is just as good with the girls. He has never bitten or tried to claw them. He might run away faster than Roosevelt, but he'll tolerate being petted and kissed and drug around for a while.
We really do have 2 very friendly, good cats. We are lucky that they aren't mean or hide when we have people over.

And, it's not that I don't love them. When they were both missing one morning, I was frantic trying to find them (they'd snuck out and had spent the night under the deck). Even a couple of weeks ago, when Roosevelt had somehow gotten out unnoticed (again!) I was worried. I'm not completely heartless here. I just kind of liked it better when we didn't have pets to worry about when we went away on vacations or for weekends. And I know Evan liked it better when there weren't animals going around ruining our stuff.

Maybe after a few years I'll feel differently. Evan talks about getting a dog sometimes, like when the girls are older, but that's a whole different conversation.

Dogs poop big poops and they don't do it in litter boxes!