Why I am thankful we kept our stupid cats.

Our cats were an impulse buy in June of 2009.  We'd always promised Elisabeth that we would get cats when we moved into a house instead of our apartment.  Evan and I had both grown up with cats and enjoyed them over dogs.  So, one day, while out and about exploring Colorado Springs, we decided to stop at a Petsmart and see the cats there. We ended up leaving with a 1.5 year old male Tabby cat that we named Roosevelt and a 4 month old gray and white kitten we named Figaro.

Now, I am sure that for those of you who own pets, I don't need to state the obvious; that taking care of pets is much more time consuming than being a child whose parents take care of pets.  Yeah...we know that now.  Honestly, after the first couple of months, we were tempted to give them back.  They both had their claws, so they were scratching the crap out of our furniture.  We weren't sure how'd they do being left alone in the house at night, so we shut them in the basement every night, which led to them climbing the insulated walls and tearing them to shreds.  I didn't realize that cats could be so picky about when their litter needs changed or that they'd find new places to pee if they felt there was no more room in their litter box.  We also  found out that Roosevelt prefers to be outside about 75% of the day, which we were unsure about since he tended to hop the fence and wander the neighborhood.

But, the thing that has kept us from every getting rid of the cats (who still claw the furniture and meow at our door at night to be let in so they can sleep at our feet) is that they are so good with our kids. Actually, they are good with almost everyone's kids, because now that we live in Texas and have no fence, they wander around our yard and everyone else's yards.  Roosevelt is a total pet junkie and will roll onto his back for belly rubs the minute any one comes over to say hi to him.

 He is kind of camouflaged here (he's at the base of the tree that Julia is climbing):

 but Roosevelt follows Julia around like a puppy.  They honestly play tag together outside.  It is hilarious to watch.  He lets her pick him up and carry him around willy nilly and never fights or tries to get away.

 He even lets her jump with him on our little trampoline.

 He is friendly and playful and is Julia's buddy.  He likes to be in the middle of everyone and the neighborhood kids love it when they see him outside.  Of course, they all flip the eff out when he scales the trees, but I think I have convinced them all that he is just fine because, you know...he's a cat.  They do that kind of thing.

 As for this massive cat:

he's not near as friendly and bold, but he is also very good with the kids. If they can catch him, he goes limp in their arms and allows them to carry him around (which is hard for Juju because he is "sooo heavy").  Plus, he and Roosevelt are very much best friends for life.  They snuggle and are usually always hanging out together.  I mean look at them:

That is true cat love people.  How could we ever separate them?