Letting The Cat Out Of The Bag

It was a surprise the other night when Les suddenly handed the phone over to Eli letting him tell our secret. The intention was to blog first to show pictures at the same time as letting 'the cat out of the bag' but that didn't work. No pictures were good enough and still isn't but I'll work with what I've got to show you what I'm babbling about!

While on Vancouver Island last month visiting friends we finally realized just how much our children miss having a pet around. 1) Apparently fish aren't quite so fulfilling and 2) Remember our beloved cat - Freddie is living with grandma and grandpa Haddad in Salmon Arm because he kept upsetting some neighbours. Anyway, while at our friends the kids spent a couple hours chasing cats all over the property with the anticipation that if they could catch one they could take it home with them. Boy did they try and boy did we adults laugh! Eli did actually seem to woo a cat who he officially named as Rudy. From that point on the remainder of our trip was cat, cat, cat, cat and everyone we saw heard about cats, cats, cats.

Les would never admit it but he's a SOFTY. He even phoned up his friend under the premise that he was being forced to call to find out if we could pick 'Rudy' up on our way home. Unfortunately all the cats that the kids were chasing were wild, have no shots, etc. and since we've already experienced having to give away a cat because of his wild side we decided this wasn't the way to go about it so we went home empty handed and the kids none the wiser.

On December 9th, 2009 Les and I stopped in at one of the local pet stores to pick up some fish food but instead of walking out with fish food walked out with our newest family member RUDY (note Les picked out the cat).

Rudy is a 3 year old indoor tabby cat, she's up to date on her shots and has been spade. It has taken her a while to settle in. She spent the first few weeks not venturing far from under our bed and if she had ventured out as soon as she heard any one coming she was back under the bed. It's now been over a month and she roams all over the house, likes to sleep at the end of beds, sneezes, chases her tail, doesn't like to be picked up, loves to be petted, likes to play with hair elastics and can often be found moving them from one part of the house to another, when she's petted she kneads, purrs loudly and LOVES tuna. She's still skittish, which often brings us to the question what happened during her first three years of life?

The kids are ecstatic and we'll often hear Eli telling us and I think himself that he loves BOTH Freddie and Rudy. None of us have forgotten about Freddie but I often wonder how much Freddie remembers of us. He's very happy where he is being let out whenever you wants day or night, served warm milk, salmon fillets, fields and fields of mice to catch and no neighbours complaining about his friendliness. Could it really get any better than that?

Really why would he ever want to come back? He's clearly King of the Castle in Salmon Arm.