Nancy

Ok. The animals are revolting. Well, Maybe just the cats, but I'm not going to count on Layla to avoid the band wagon.

Reagan is gone. I've come to terms with it. He was cooped up as an indoor cat 8 years longer than he ever wanted to be, and he has always been an outdoor cat by nature. He's wild. He's feral. He's a terror, really, and I like to imagine that he's gone back to his roots and has found happiness. I also like to imagine that he has not found the underside of a car. K? In all honesty, I miss him a lot but I do know that he is having much more fun outside and I'm thankful for the companionship (read: neediness) he provided for the last 8 years.

But nancy. Sweet nancy. Itty bitty prissy pants nancy.

She's revolting.

We have had her for 5 years and in that time I have heard her squeak all of maybe 10 times. And they're the cutest little squeaks you've ever heard! She's never whined, never begged, never howled and never been a verbal nuisance. Annoying on the neck maybe, but never vocal.

And now - when there is night time silence for the first time in 8 years - she has decided its time to discover howls. She has learned to scream out the windows and sprint across the house at lightening speed, pressing all her weight into every step so as to sound like a herd of miniature elephants. (Reagan pulled off elephants well, but at 20 pounds his lesser she barely pulls of miniature elephants.)

And sweet, old, relaxed, laid back nancy has also since discovered the door. The DOOR! I fought with Reagan for 8 years about being freed into the wild, but never ol' priss pot. She's too high maintenance for that.

Or should I say she WAS too high maintenance.

This morning she - like Reagan one month ago - BOLTED out the door into the garage. Luckily the garage door was closed so she is now confined to the garage until the stubbornness subsides. But REALLY?!?! Come on nancy! What are you doing to me?

As William might say, dog gone animals!!!

I just hope my next post isn't titled '...and then there was one...'

Good 'ol Layla. For now.


- manda