Uninvited Guest

When Megan decided to get a cat for the girls, we knew we didn't want it to be an inside cat. We figured we could just leave the garage door open 6 inches at the bottom and it could come and go as it pleased. We went out of town for labor day weekend and poured a bunch of cat food in a bowl and left. When we returned home, all of the cat food was gone, which was a little surprising since the cat is still fairly small.

We got everything unpacked, got the kids to bed and Megan went out to the garage to get something out of the outside fridge. She caught a raccoon eating the cat food while the cat was hiding terrified in the corner.

Instead of running out of the garage when Megan came out, the raccoon went and hid in another corner of the garage behind a shovel. Megan came and got me, so i retrieved our BB gun, which ironically we got in our first house to keep the neighborhood cats from using our yard as a litter box. After shooting the raccoon 4 times and it not even moving, Megan suggested i use the shotgun she gave me for my birthday a few years ago. Apparently she has no idea what a 12 gauge would do to a raccoon or our garage at short range. I told her i would use it if she agreed to clean up the mess. A few shots from the BB gun later and the raccoon ran off into the night.

Now we need to rethink this whole cat thing. Maybe we will get one of these instead.

#3 Starts Kindergarten

#1 and 2 started school last week.

Although Megan tried all kinds of ways to talk #3 out of starting kindergarten , she started today anyway. #3 has been counting down the days ever since her last day of preschool last spring.

She promised me she would not get into any fights today.

Now megan is left home with #4 and a cat, both of which go to the bathroom where they aren't supposed to.

Cat:Part 1

I had dogs growing up and even went and got one against my mothers wishes when i was 16. A few years later the doctor got one too. Then we got some more and had a dogsled team for a while.

I eventually put my first dog down because he had diabetes. It got to the point where he was blind and couldn't move. It was hard explaining to my daughters that i was taking the dog to heaven. They had been taught about heaven in church and when i left with the dog in the car, it confused them that i could drive to heaven.

Megan and i agreed to wait a while before getting a new dog. That while turned out to be about 2 weeks. Megan got obsessed and ended up doing lots of research on what breed would best suit our family. It turned out that a labrador retriever was best suited for what we wanted in a dog. The only drawback with a lab is that there are so many of them that sometimes the breeding can be compromised. We found a reputable breeder that had both the mother and the father so we could see both of them and then had its hips and eyes checked. We bought a puppy and took him home and went through all of the highs and lows of having a puppy.

He grew up big and had lots of puppy energy even at the age of almost 4.

Right as we moved into our current house, he started having seizures and we found out he had epilepsy. We got him on medication but within a few months we ended up having to put him down as well. Megan never really had a chance to have a calm dog curl up at her feet and look up at her adoringly while she read a book that she was so looking forward to. I have offered to do that for her but she just thinks it's creepy when i do it.

We again agreed to wait a while before getting another dog. Megan wasn't ready to do the puppy thing with me being at work all day, and i was okay not shoveling poop for a while.

We had various rodents and fish, as well as fish that were accidentally fed to the rodents. The life expectancy of rodents is not long so it is hard to get overly attached to a mouse. Especially since we set mouse traps in the garage.

Megan recently became obsessed again.

This time she figured that the girls have too much love to keep bottled up and they need to give some of that love back to one of Gods creations. This time she decided that the recipient of all of that love was going to be an outside cat. They live longer than a year, they bury their own poop and when you go out of town, you just dump a bunch of food in a bowl and they are fine. It's not like a dog where you have to board it or pay some neighbor kid to come over and take care of it. I have been telling the girls for years that i was allergic to cats, but if it was going to be an outside cat that i didn't have to touch, i would deal with my allergies.

I figured we could just wait until we saw someone giving them away at the grocery store and pick one up for free.

Megan talked to lil bill's dad who had their cat run away a while back and it was decided to go to the humane society and get litter mates together. Lil' Bill stole the kitten that we wanted and we had to settle for the second best kitten there.

We filled out an extensive application and then gave urine and blood samples and had a psychiatric evaluation, we were finally able to take the cat home.

I have officially given away any small piece of masculinity i had left.