Sneaky Cat

Anyone who knows me knows that I am not an indoor animal person. (I won't go into all of the reasons - I've learned that people who have house pets and those who don't will never understand each other. They're from different planets. Planets even further away from each other than Venus and Mars.) So it was quite surprising today when I walked into Calvin's playroom and he was sitting on his chair nonchalantly holding a cat. I went to check the front door which I always keep locked because he has a habit of escaping and trying to find his way to the park if I don't. It was not locked. He giggled and squealed as the cat rubbed itself all over him and ran around the room. As this cat is a particularly nice cat that I really like, I decided it couldn't hurt anything to let her stay for a few minutes. Calvin picked her up and hugged her often, practically strangling the poor animal, but she was very easy going and didn't react to the rough treatment. I stayed in there and made sure he was nice to her, and then I gave her a bowl of tuna for her troubles. She was there for about an hour.

That was before naps. After naps Calvin wandered up the stairs with his new best friend. I checked the front door and sure enough, it was unlocked again. She stuck around for a while before we took her out in the yard to play, and then we went on with our day.

Tonight when it was dark and late I saw Calvin trying to sneak to the front door. I stopped him and said, "Calvin, don't open that door. You're not allowed to open the door without Mommy." He just said "Cat" and then opened the door. She immediately ran in.

I gave her the rest of the can of tuna, put Autumn in her chair so that she wasn't on the floor with the cat, and then let Calvin play with her while I did some dishes. When I looked over the cat had jumped on the table and was rubbing sideways against the baby's face. I put the cat outside and told Calvin to tell her goodnight.

Despite my feelings about animals in the house, I felt like I was trying to be a good mom. After spending the evening pulling cat hairs out of Autumn's mouth I was feeling much less accommodating.