Partners in Crime

This is right after we got Lily. She was still recovering from being spayed and this is the first time that she let Soccer get this close to her. From the minute he met her, he wanted to cuddle. From the minute she met him, she's wanted to chase him. The girls got some old blankets and made them a bed in the floor to cuddle on...

Does this really look all that comfortable?

"Who ME???" Lily tries this face on me a lot! She's very smart that way.

There goes that noise again; the sound that you hear when a cup of liquid hits the kitchen floor. I'd like to blame 3YO, since kids spill things so often. But, 3YO is in the living room with me. It's her milk, however, but the cat is to blame for the spill.

You see, Soccer's goal in life is to knock things over. It's not just drinks on the kitchen table, it can also be a toy the girls are playing with in the floor or anything really. He just likes to watch things fall. Heck! Maybe he was Sir Isaac Newton in a past life or something! Not that he doesn't reap the rewards when the thing he knocks over spills milk onto the kitchen floor. What cat wouldn't be happy about that? It's just that it doesn't seem to be the real reason that he does it, given all the random things he has knocked over in past year or so that we've had him. And he doesn't knock things in the floor to play with them, either. Once he watches them fall, he simply walks away. (Unless of course, there's milk to clean up!)

And Lily is not innocent in all of this. She is fully aware of what Soccer is capable of and I think she even tells him to do things. I've walked into the kitchen and found Soccer pulling something out of the trash can and throwing it down to Lily. They seem to have a connection that way. Lily still chases Soccer on a regular basis, but that doesn't seem to bother my rather dim kitty. Sometimes he runs, sometimes he stops and rubs his face against hers, as if to remind her that he's not really afraid of her and doesn't feel like playing. Every morning, the two of them are joined at the hip in the kitchen while I make lunches. They are hoping that something falls and are making it clear that they work as a team. Sometimes, I cut the crust off of 6YO's sandwich and give it to them. Yes, that will certainly keep them coming back, now won't it?

Given the warm temps we've had here, I got my first glimpse of spring yesterday. No, it wasn't the fact that it was still not very cold, even though it was raining and yucky. Or that the kids could have worn shorts the day before that.

Yesterday morning, as I was making the lunches for 12YO, 6YO, and David, I heard Lily yelp. It wasn't the kind of yelp that sounded like she was hurt, more like she was surprised. As I looked toward her, I saw what she was yelping at. Soccer had caught a gopher and brought it into the house. It was bleeding, but certainly not dead. It just caught Lily off guard, I guess. Once she realized that it was a moving, squeaking creature, she started bouncing and wagging her tail as if Soccer had just given her the coolest squeaker toy EVER. The gopher stood up and started snapping at the two of them while they playfully circled him. I hurried to find our grabber thing, which is ironically called 'The Gopher' ...which totally cracks me up. Did they know that this thing would actually be used to pick up GOPHERS??? I think we've used it more for that than for anything else. David sometimes uses it to pick up trash that's blown into our yard so he doesn't have to bend over. We bought it when I was pregnant and my heartburn was so bad that bending over make me want to hurl.

Aaaaahhhh....the memories!

It was still easier for me to just step over the sock I dropped or get a kid to pick it up, but I now usually end up using it to pick up critters (mostly actual gophers) that end up being dragged into the house by my stupid cat. Then again, maybe he's not stupid. Maybe he just doesn't care what we think.

Anywhoooooo, I used The Gopher to pick up the gopher and flung it out into the backyard. The dog and cat quickly bounded through the cat door so they wouldn't lose sight of their 'kill.' I closed off the cat door, cleaned the puddles of blood off my kitchen floor, washed my hands and finished spreading mayo on bread.

Just another morning in our house!

Before I get lots of comments telling me to use a spray bottle to chase my cat off the table, let me tell you that he likes water. He might eventually get off the table once he's soaked, but he'll mostly just stand there and stare at you. Water doesn't upset him like it should. In fact, nothing really upsets Soccer. He does eventually jump down from the table when you run toward him waving your arms in big circles and screaming his name like a crazy person. It's not enough to get him to pick up his pace, but it does get him off the table. Eventually. Our entire family participates in this ritual and some people on the phone don't know what to think when, in mid-sentence, we scream, "SOCCER!!!!" I'm sure some must think we have vocal tics of some sort.

If we do, it's all Soccer and Lily's fault....