I said, "No more Pets!"

While G was an infant, I was overwhelmed. C was still in diapers, we had a dog, 2 cats and 2 gerbils. I was up to my neck in 'poop'. I decided then, NO MORE PETS. I didn't have the heart to get rid of any of our long term family members, but I intended not to replace them when they did pass away.

This changed with the passing of our dog, Zeus. This impacted C more deeply than I had expected. Bill lobbied hard for a new dog, and I put it off saying when we were in Mexico AND we had a fenced yard, AND he totally took care of it, we could get a dog. View the story here.

I was ok with the dog as C and Bill were taking care of him. Then last week we were walking home from the center of town with the dog. We passed the little creek close to our home, and heard a little 'mew'. Tius launched at the place where the sound came from. I pulled Tius off and the boys picked up a tiny white kitten. We looked around. No mother cat, other kittens or homes nearby that this little kitten could have come from. I mean this little one is about 3 weeks old.

So here's the big truth in it all. As much as I try to be tough, I could not leave this tiny thing left to whatever other dog, snake or starvation. So we took it home. It was so young, we had to feed it milk with a syringe. I am still trying to figure out how to find another home for it.

I find out that unfortunately, it is common for some people here to discard unwanted baby animals on the side of the road to become food for stray dogs, or whatever. That also did not help my efforts in finding someone to adopt this little critter. We decided to allow G to have this kitten and take responsibility for it. He had wanted a puppy for himself and was very disappointed when we told him he had not yet learned to be gentle enough to our family cats to earn the right to own his own pet. He since learned his lesson and strives to be more patient and helpful. This kitten would be far less work than a puppy and it would show a confidence boost in his ability to care for an animal (supervised of course).

That's not the end of my story. The next day, C and G go next door to visit their neighbor friend. On the way home, C finds another kitten, easily a block away from where we found the first one, and a week older than the first one, or so it seemed. This kitten was larger, more developed (it could eat out of a dish). Ugh. Same scenario, I couldn't just leave him alone out there to be lunch.

So now we have 2 new kittens. So much for my big decisions. The other unfortunate part is that our older cat, Tigger is plain not happy about any of it. Let's see. We dragged the poor thing on an airplane to a new home -he really hated that. Before he had even adjusted to the new home, we brought home an older puppy. I thought he'd be ok with it as we used to have a dog. Wrong. Tigger really hated that too. He lost his life-long buddy Panther. Now, he is thoroughly not impressed by the two little kittens that are now starting to play with everything. Poor Tigger. Mexico has not been good to him.

We have since determined that the likelihood that these are from two different litters is not very good, so we think the first kitten (Snowball/Snow bell) is the runt. We have named the second kitten Screech due to his very loud protests at being carried.

So now I have more on my to do list - as any mother knows it takes more work to TEACH responsibility than to actually do it yourself. Thankfully, both kittens can now each out of a bowl - but need to be fed 4 times a day. G is very happy with his new responsibility and doing very well - though we often have to remind him that it is not a stuffed toy.

I think one of my volunteer projects will be establishing an SPCA here - or at the very least - finding a way to get all these animals spayed/neutered - before I have a house full of cats.