Trouble Is A Friend

Is it possible to have too many cats in your life? Yes, I suppose it is. I myself have had moments where I've had just about enough of cats.

Spike likes to be involved in
everything I do. Here he is
'helping' me with the dishes.

Today, for example, Spike the Terror sneaked up to the table at lunchtime and as soon as I turned my back, he stole a slice of ham right out of my sandwich! Later, when I had just gotten home from work and really just wanted to rest for a while, Spike the Terror struck again! What fun it would be, he thought, to chew on this wire connecting your phone to the wall. Not long after I distracted him from that game, he decided to play 'chew on a plastic bag and see how long it takes human to come stop me from choking to death'. Ultimately, I shut him out of my room so he could be someone else's problem for a while.

Sometimes having cats is not unlike having small children. They need to be fed and cleaned up after, they keep you from your sleep, they sometimes need to be entertained or distracted, and if you aren't consistent with discipline, they turn into real terrors. They also need to be closely watched to ensure they don't stick their little fingers into an electrical socket, or something of that nature. I can't tell you how many times Baby has been caught trying to swallow lengths of ribbon and string. Like an infant, anything he finds on the floor goes right into his mouth. It makes me worry what they get into when I'm not home.

Baby likes to hide in the tunnel and attack unsuspecting passerby.

But I'm pretty sure that when I'm not around, they're innocently sleeping the hours away. Waiting. Conserving their energy for when I get home, at which time they will tear through the house like wild animals, knocking over potted plants and glasses of water, and just in general make nuisances of themselves.

On the other hand, those rare moments when they're being sweet and cuddly and paw-pawing your lap kind-of make up for their unending shenanigans. Sometimes I wonder, why do I have these cats? They're more trouble than their worth! I often threaten to take them back where I found them. (Not that it makes any difference.) But then there are days like yesterday, when I woke up just before noon, and all three cats were tucked up next to me in a row--a rare moment indeed! In moments like that - when you wake up with a smile on your face - you remember why they are worth it.

A picturesque Sunday morning: Baby in the foreground, Ollie in the middle, and Spike at the end.