When I woke up this morning (okay, fine, this afternoon), my cat, Homer, started meowing like crazy. I went to my computer and he followed me, scratched the top of my chair, jumped all over my desk, rubbing his face in my papers, and pawing at all the little trinkets I've got there. Every time I put him on the floor, he jumped back, meowing and basically demanding my attention, until he decided to stay on the floor, but scratch the wall, over and over, incessantly, with this increasingly annoying sound, somewhat reminiscent of fingernails on a chalkboard, until I couldn't take it anymore!

"WHAT?! What do you WANT?!" I yelled at him.

"Meow?" he replied meekly.

I sighed. I mean, I just yelled at my cat for being excited that I'm finally awake? I felt like a very bad kitty owner.

So I went to the closet and got out the cool wand toy, the one with the very long piece of colorful felt dangling from it. Or maybe it's some type of polar fleece. Anyway, it's pretty cool. I started swirling it around and Homer's eyes lit up as he pounced on it. Soon, Patches came out from under the bed and was ready to participate in all the fun. She is a much more spastic player than Homer. She just flails her arms wildly at whatever is fluttering around her, then scampers off until she's ready for more. Homer watches and waits, and only makes his move when the timing is right. He kept grabbing the string and licking it, which was quite precious, actually. Their antics had me laughing more than I'd expected when I'd reluctantly gotten the toy from the closet in the first place. It was fun to see them having fun.

Eventually, they settled down a bit, so I just left the toy on the floor for them. They dragged it closer to their food bowls and chewed on it for a while, then promptly curled up in their favorite sleeping places for a nap.

Ah, cats. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

I really, truly do love my kitties. They sleep against me, or on top of me, at night. They love to be loved. They're independent enough so that I can go on vacation and leave them with food, water, and maybe even a pet-sitter to check in on them. They make me laugh, and "awww," at their adorableness on a daily basis. I think there's something special about each and every kind of animal, as well as each and every individual animal. Cats just seem to add a certain something to a household. Love, silliness, a touch of chaos...

But even with the occasional frustrations that may come with cat ownership, those refrigerator magnets don't lie --

A house without cats is really not a home...

~~Meg