A Surprise Visitor

A few days ago, we FINALLY had a small spot of nice weather....FINALLY. This has been a very cold and dreary winter, so when we had a day in the 60s, we were very excited (I'm hoping for another day like that someday). Anyway, the boys were especially happy about playing outside and did so as long as we let them. On their way back in to the house, they let in what they thought was our cat Priscilla.

So the boys came in and got their pajamas on, and then we read Scriptures and said prayers as a family. Thobe has a had a rough time falling to sleep at night, so Michael was gently tickling his face while I hugged Hyrum. The house was just starting to quiet down when we heard a lot of meowing. Our kitty does not make a lot of noise unless something is wrong, so Michael ran downstairs as quickly as he could. A few minutes later he called, "Melissa, there is a little kitten in our house! You have to come and see it." I told him I did not want to see it because then I might like it, and we did not need more than one cat. Being the coaxing husband that he is, I went down in the basement and looked at it. 

The poor little thing was scared out of its whits and was very cute. We tried to talk it out of the closet where it was hiding, but it didn't want to come. We just sat and watched the basketball game that we were watching, and eventually, it came out of hiding. After that, the little guy wouldn't leave us alone. All he wanted to do was to snuggle with us, which was a bad thing for me because I was allergic to him. He was very, very affectionate and happy, and we knew that unless he belonged to someone else that he would be a good cat for Michael's parents.

It was especially interesting the next morning when we introduced him to the kids. Hyrum kept saying, "Oh Priscilla really likes me," as it nestled itself against him. Priscilla usually hides (and for good reason) when she sees Hyrum and Jacob. Alden and Thobe loved the new kitty. He would snuggle and play with them as long as they were willing. However, the most entertaining duo was Jacob and the kitten. The kitten loved attention, and Jacob had no problem giving him far more attention than he wanted. The kitten would snuggle next to Jacob and then he would put his arms around the kitty and give him a very tight hug. Eventually the hug would get even tighter, and Jacob and the kitten would roll across the floor. Surprisingly the first 10 times of this seemed to be fine with the kitty, but after awhile the kitty didn't love it and ran away. This was also exciting to Jacob. Giggling, he would chase the kitty around the house and try to grab it. Eventually the kitty would give up, and complacently sit next to Jacob. Jake would get so excited that he would start flailing his arms and hit the poor animal. At this point, Michael and I would intercede and the kitty would escape. Each day, the kitty seemed to like Jacob a little less, and Jacob loved the kitty even more.

My favorite Jacob and Kitty moment happened a couple days ago. Jacob fell to sleep on the way home from picking up Hyrum from preschool. If I move him, he wakes up, so I just kept the van and garage doors open and worked in the kitchen and laundry room, checking on him regularly. When Alden and Thobe got home from school, I asked Alden to check on Jacob. He came running in the house, yelling, "Mom, Mom, you've got to come see this. It's so cute!!!" I asked him, while I ran down the stairs, what was going on. He said that when he peeked into the van, the kitty was contently sitting on Jacob's lap, and Jacob was petting the kitty with a big smile on his face. He really loves that cat.

The best news about this story is that the kitty now belongs to Michael's parents. We kept putting the kitty outside and leaving the garage door open so it could go back home, but he kept coming back. Michael's parents have been wanting a cat, so we took him up to them. I have to admit that life with the kitty wasn't blissful. Since he did like to snuggle so much, I would often find myself petting him and then would touch my eyes. This would make my eyes so itchy and me so sneezy. I didn't love that. Also unlike our kitty Priscilla, this cat was not house trained and left more than one "treasure" for us to clean up. The amount of human discretion that I have had to deal with has dramatically decreased in the last few months, so I wasn't at all interested in having cat pooh and pee replace that void.

We can go to Toledo when Jacob needs his kitty fix, and I imagine that Michael's parents will be far better at house training a cat that I am--I am convinced that I am the worst potty trainer in the world.