I'm afraid we're going to wind up being the weird cat people down the street. One year and one week ago today we had to say goodbye to my 13-year-old orange marmalade kitty Max. He was my baby--he'd been with me at 4 apartments, my parents house and our house. He never did like G a whole lot and was basically a one-person cat. G did like Max though, and we were both heartbroken when he died.

We discussed getting another pet and I said I either wanted a dog or 2 cats. We'd already pretty much decided that a dog would have to wait until we're somewhere with a bigger yard and a fence. G started talking about a cat he'd seen in the parking lot of a pet store where he hangs out a lot and I could tell he really liked her. She was apparently living in a nearby cemetery and in the lot I mentioned. One day in the middle of November I teasingly asked when he was going to bring my cat home, and the next day I called him at home about something and heard a meow. She's a good-sized calico who'd apparently had a pretty hard life. The poor thing has BBs in her where some idiot shot her. We named her Marble. We guessed her to be no more than 4 or 5, but our vet said she was more like 7 1/2 or 8. She's a moody girl, but pretty sweet most of the time. She's also somewhat sedentary, but will play sometime. I'd wanted to get a kitten, too, and hoped she would play with one and mother it some, but when I brought home a little black and white female from animal control in March, Marble wasn't very welcoming. Minnie (as in "I think I shall call her Mini-Me...") likes Marble, though. She's always jumped on her and wanted to play. Marble makes a horrible amount of noise during their wrestling matches, but we think she really likes it. She's kind of fat (no, we don't overfeed and they don't eat table scraps) and doesn't move as quickly as Minnie, who's a nut. We love both of them.

G is often mentioning kittens he's seen and he's sad Minnie's not a little kitten anymore. I said, OK, we'll get a new kitten every spring (I wasn't serious, of course). He talked about a cute little male who looks like Minnie but said we'd have to get another yellow kitty next, one more like Max, I suppose. This morning I was getting in my car and saw something gray out of the corner of my eye and assumed it was one of the many squirrels in our neighborhood. It was a little striped kitten with medium-length hair. I picked it up and G said "no!" I said I was just getting it away from the car and G said to put it in the bed of his truck so it couldn't run under my wheels. I saw it jump on our porch as the car pulled out. Why would anyone let a kitten run free, with no collar, on a fairly busy street like ours? If it's around when I get home, I'm afraid we may have another family member soon. Somebody stop us!!