Priscilla

From the time that Michael and I first got married, Michael has wanted a cat. However, when we'd visit his parents' house who had a cat at the time, I would become almost incapacitated with my allergies. I was so allergic to their cat that I would wake Michael up in the night hyperventilating, insisting that we go for a ride in the car so that I could breathe. When I went to an allergist, Michael begged me to ask if I could get a weekly shot so that we could have a cat at our house. My allergist was disgusted, but I don't think she or I for that matter realized how important a cat was to Michael. 

We always said that when we got a house that we would think about getting an outdoor cat, but since the first eight years of our married life was spent in an apartment, it didn't become an issue. When we moved here to Lima, we decided that it was time to look into getting our outdoor cat. Unfortunately, the local animal pound said they wouldn't adopt a cat to a family who was going to keep the cat outside. Michael began looking at which cats were more hypoallergenic than others. We visited at Siberian cat farm (apparently allergic people have more tolerance to Siberian cats); however, trying to convince someone who wasn't all that thrilled about having a cat anyway to spend $300 on a discount cat didn't go over that well. Michael told me that he was done trying to get a cat and sadly conceded that our family would always be cat free.  I felt really bad that I had shattered his cat dreams, but he decided that it was over and insisted that we not talk about it anymore. We both assumed that we would enjoy our neighbor's cat Jake (no, we didn't name Jacob after our neighbor's cat) and have him be our adopted cat, even though he had scratched or bit both Alden and Hyrum because he hates kids.

However, around Thanksgiving life as we knew it changed a bit. The Tuesday before Thanskgiving a very cute little kitten with black and white and orange stripes made her way into our garage. Hyrum was ecstatic! He ran over to her and began petting her. She playfully rubbed against his leg and didn't do anything when he picked her up. Alden and Thobe also played with her and gave her something to eat. Michael told the boys not to give her any food so that she would go back home. That crazy kitty didn't leave though. We intentionally didn't feed her for two days thinking she'd go back home. She looked forward to us coming out to the garage and would always meow happily when she'd see us.

We knew if she was still around when Michael's dad came that we'd have ourselves a cat. He has such a soft spot for animals, and sure enough on Thanksgiving day, he asked me if I had an old towel and bowl. I found him giving the kitty water and made her a soft warm bed in the garage. I was surprised that as the boys let her in the house from time to time and as I'd pet her that she didn't make me sneeze, and soon I too became quite fond of her. I loved how good she was with my kids. I also loved that whenever I'd say, "Hi Kitty." She'd say, "Meow." I think Michael is in seventh heaven having a cat around. He loves that little thing so much!

We also decided that we should name our little cat. We had several ideas. Thobe especially liked calling her Cheerio. We also thought that maybe we could call her Tickle--Jacob's girl name that the boys gave him before he was born, but those names didn't work so well. I suggested that we call her Priscilla since she came to us at Thanksgiving, and it stuck. She gets called Cilla a lot, but it's a good name for her. She's a perfect cat. She uses her litter box perfectly. If she's in the house and needs to go to her litter box, she meows to let us know. She takes medicine well, she has never scratched any of the kids, even if they are rough with her. She is playful and fun, but not too playful, and Michael tells me that she'll be a great mouser (we've never had a mouse, but it is one of my worst fears). She loves it when the kids go to bed and she has Michael and me all to herself. She especially is fascinated with the toilet. No matter what, she runs to the bathroom if she ever hears any of us going, even if she was in a deep sleep.

Recently she got fixed so we won't have to worry about little kittens in the Spring. This was very troubling to Alden. He didn't like us messing with things like that. He very seriously told me that Heavenly Father has a plan that we all need to do, and then said, "Mom, have your prayed about Priscilla having that operation? I really think you should pray about that." He's such a good boy.

We decided to go through with the surgery, despite Alden's concern. She's been such a good little kitty. You could tell that she didn't feel well, but she still took care of all her business and was so gentle, even with Hyrum.

It's funny how she just came into our lives. I keep telling Michael that I think he must have prayed her here. I really can't imagine a better cat for our family. She's just about purrrfect.

By way of pets, I should also mention that our two crawdads that we have in our fish tank are now the proud parents of at least 20 new baby crawdads. For having no pets when we moved to Lima, we've sure acquired a lot in the last three years.