Here Kitty, Kitty

Yesterday's food is still in the bowl. This should have been our first clue.

About a month or so ago I was picking stickers out of our overgrown backyard (remember the days and days of rain?) when all of a sudden a small kitten pounced toward me. She came right out of nowhere. She was really small, skinny, and super friendly. Too friendly, in fact. Emma fell in love instantly. The kitten looked hungry so I instructed the kids to find her some food and give her a bowl of milk. I later learned that when you feed a stray animal one meal, it's the equivalent of purchasing her from a store. The kitten was ours.

The next day I picked up a bag of kitten food and some flea and tick medicine for Kitty (we're real original with names around here). The kids announced to everyone that they now have a cat. Occasionally we would find the cat at the neighbor's house, and I would secretly hope that they would feed her, so she wouldn't come home. But she always came back. A couple of days ago I was actually wondering how much it would cost to "fix" her so we wouldn't be stuck with a litter of kittens. I've heard Bob Barker's plea to help control the pet population.

But sadly, our pet-ownership days are over. This afternoon Paul Ivan had some friends over, and they decided to go swimming. The two friends jumped in, began swimming, only to find the lifeless body of Kitty. Did I mention that Kitty is a great jumper? I've seen her jump at least 3 feet off the ground. Apparently, sometime over the weekend she decided to jump in for a swim. My kids are sad, but more disappointed. Emma's taking it great. She's the one who broke the news to Dad over the phone. She declared, "The cat died, her whole body is dead." During FHE, we talked about what we should do with the cat's body. I mentioned that trash day is on Wednesday, but my husband was leaning more toward burial. He threw out the question, "What should we do with the cat?" Emma quickly answered, "Eat it! It's dead." Boy, her brothers got a kick out of that one.

I guess we can stop feeding the cat now. Tomorrow I'll go out and clean up the food. I think I'll just throw away the rest of the bag, so I won't have anything to feed the next stray that comes around.