Kirby...

This is Kirby. He is our pet cat. Yes, you read that right, our pet cat. Kind-of. Many of you may remember him from our old house, on Blossey. After having lived there for a few weeks last summer, this little fella started coming around every night. I, of course, ignored him, but my cat loving husband and children started little by little to love him and take care of him. They fed him, and loved on him, and they named him. Tucker named him; Kirby. Ben's grandfathers name was Kirby. Me and the kids have never met him, but one of Ben's sisters' families just recently named their cat Kirby (after the grandfather) and Tucker wanted to name our cat that as well. And it has stuck. Anyway, we didn't know if he had owners, or belonged to the people that lived there before us, but he seemed to always be hungry, and was ALWAYS in our backyard, like it was his home. 

A few weeks before our move into our new house, the subject came up on weather we were going to take him with us or not. I said no. Daddy said Maybe, the kids said YES PLEASE! One day in a moment of what I can only describe as shear disillusionment  I told the kids, that MAYBE we could take him with us, if we get him checked out at a vet clinic. Well, they hung onto those words like the bible, and I couldn't rescind! 

Anyway, we move, we decide NOT to take Kirby, and (felt a bit bad) left him at our old house, hoping that he would find another house, or go home if he had a home. A week or so goes by and Ben had to go back to the old house for something and saw a big bright orange notice on our old front door, saying, VIOLATION! It was from SCRAPS (the animal safety people here in Spokane) saying that we were in violation for abandoning our animal. Ben grabbed the notice to call them, but we forgot. So a week or so later, we go back and there is another one on the door knob, along with 4-5 open cans of tuna in the driveway. Finally Ben called them and let them know that he was not our cat, that yes, we had been feeding him, but he wasn't ours. She told us that our 'concerned neighbor' from across the street called them and told them we had abandoned our cat, and had been worried about the cat, so was putting cans of tuna out for him every night. Anyway, long story here, sorry... Ben came home that night (to our new house) with a little friend in tow. I looked at him like, wha...??? and he defensively told me that the lady had guilted him into taking Kirby with us to our new house, since we HAD been feeding him for the past year almost! And then of course the kids brought up the fact that I did tell them we could keep him if we took him to the vet.

So.... now we have a cat. I never thought in a million years I would be a cat owner. I haven't taken him to the vet yet, only because after Ben brought him here, he disappeared! I was a bit happy about that, I thought maybe he decided to go to his home. But, last week he started coming around again and has been spotted every day since, so I guess he's back for good, and I really need to get him into that Vet!

He is actually a very tame and quiet cat, just wants some attention and food, I think. I told Ben that I wasn't going to do ANY of the maintenance for Kirby, or cleaning or be responsible for the feeding. So, I think I can survive! :)

And that's how I became a cat owner, the last person on the planet who would ever want to be a pet owner.