The evidence of my illness......

Or, rather, introducing Ceiling Cat - the latest addition to our menagerie.

The story is rather silly, as anyone who knows me realizes that I have ENOUGH pets. I do NOT need any more......

It was Wednesday and the older kids had band. There are several Prop 8 supporters involved in band, we even had a bit of a bruhaha about a Yes on 8 email that went out to the students, so I wished to avoid the scene today. I dropped the kids off and, with Olivia, took off to do something.......Olivia wanted to go "window shopping" at Target......Olivia isn't a good "window" shopper - she excels at just plain shopping. So I nixed that idea and suggested we go pet the dogs at the animal shelter. Olivia likes animals but does not share my obsession, so I thought the trip would be limited to the small amount of time she could tolerate the barking, then we'd be finished. It was free entertainment, right?????

I confess to visiting the OC shelter a few times every year.....but always to see the dogs. I have NEVER entered the cat rooms. In fact, I did not realize there WERE cat rooms - I thought the cats were limited to the poor feline souls who cower in collective kennels across from the locked down dogs (the biters). On this trip Olivia and I met two dogs that I would have easily brought home immediately, had it not meant an almost certain divorce. So, we were on our way out - no more barking for Olivia - when we stopped to look at the terrified cats. That is when the lovely shelter volunteer pointed out the cat portables and suggested we go have a look.

I SHOULD have known better, but into the cat houses we went. Umpteen zillion cats and kittens eyed us through their bars. There were teeny tiny guys, not much bigger than Lucky when we brought him home, and full grown, lazy cats, shifting to find the most comfortable spot in their miniscule cells.

Being a cat person, Olivia found several she adored, but I had eyes only for one. He really wasn't anything special to look at - all white with greenish eyes - but he started purring the moment I looked at him, and then just never stopped. He oozed love and affection, and later, when we picked him up, he lost all bone structure and turned into a ragdoll motorboat kitty. I was hooked.

It was time, however, to go pick up my band kids, so we headed back to the car. Joe was out of town, but I called him anyway and asked him how mad he'd be if I brought home another cat. After a pause he said he'd be pretty mad, but he'd get over it. Then he just laughed.......I knew I had him!

On our way home from band we swung by the shelter and made Ceiling Cat our own. He had to be tested, get shots, and be neutered (and in the process, as is so common for shelter cats, he got sick) so he didn't come home until today.......

Even though four cats is a little over the top, I already feel certain I could not have lived with myself had I not sprung him........

I guess the moral is I desperately need a big place out in the country somewhere - I am running out of room for my animals!

-Theresa