We have had 3 cats for nearly 2 years now and I have to say that it is not as much work as you all think it is.  However, the group dynamics have been bizarre for the past year.  Mark and I have both blogged plenty about Hera and her mood swings which are not yet solved.  More recently though, as in 3 weeks after Will was born, Star started peeing.  After watching everything that happens around the house it is clear she does not like William and it isn’t getting better.  Considering she pees in his room though, we just can’t have this.  She needs a new home.  Our hope is that someone is willing to give her a shot at a happy life.  So let me tell you a little about her.

Star showed up at my Aunt’s house on the family farm, pawing at the door to get in the house.  We only had Purrball at the time and wanted to get him a friend.  For a while, we had planned on getting a young black british short hair, but when Star showed up, we had to rescue her.  My stepmom named her Star for the white spot on her chest, but since that was “too normal” for us, we created the fullname of Monstar and continued to call her Star.

Star is a bit of an odd duck and I can’t quite explain why.  She and Purrball became friends quickly, but she never really took to his rough playing tactics.  She likes to be very independent, except when you’re ready for bed.  Then she wants to lay on you for pets.  She likes to play by herself by batting a little white puffball around or swatting at a fleece string.  On rare occasions she feels freskie enough to jump in the air for the string.

Overall she is a fairly calm, independent, sweet, beautiful black cat.  (Declawed, spayed, and litter trained for the record – well with the above exception.)  We would really rather that she got to stay here and live with us, but we simply can’t have this behavior with a little one around now.  If you would like to adopt her, please contact us (in the comments below if you want).  Otherwise, please pray that someone wants to take her in so that she doesn’t meet the other fate that has been offered to us.

Mark and I never really followed up on the cat situation.  I wouldn’t say the situation is “fixed” per se, but at the persistant advice of a wonderful veterinarian we know, we have learned how to handle it.  We were getting a bit down because it seemed like Hera was never going to stop having fits.  Mark has even suggested that she’s bi-polar (not that you could diagnose that in a cat).  The vet we know insisted that if we just relax and let them do their thing, it will get better.  As we started to do this and got used to how to do this, the difference was amazing!  It was so obvious that they were feeding off of our nervous energy then.  Hera’s fits have gotten fewer, but when it does happen we can keep it to 5 minutes max instead of 4 hours or days!  If it turns out that she is just reacting to my hormones and stops after Will is born, all the better.

My favorite part – its a lifelong lesson that will help us be better parents too.  A crying baby is going to feed off of our energy.  If we relax, we can help Will chill out faster too.  This is what my dad tells me at least.  We’ll find out for ourselves soon enough!

I was thinking this weekend about how people consider their pets.  Mark and I obviously (from our multitudes of posts and pictures of them) love our cats very much and think of them as family.  As we prepare to have our first child though, we recognize that the cats will take a backseat to our son (yes, son!).  Yet, I can’t help but think that we will probably still spoil our cats more than the average family.

So you tell me, whether you prefer cats, dogs, rabbits, or some other animal, how do you consider your pet?  Are they family?  Are they around simply to help you (kill mice, protect the house)?  Or are they just an innocent bystander or cute parasite soaking up your money?

We came home today to find this waiting for us. We’ve had a couple other sheep show up (from the baby room), but not the big sheep! Some how and for some reason the cats drag the sheep across the house. We’ve decided we should get a webcam so we can witness how this happens.

Everything Mark wrote about Hera is very true and I don’t have much to add.  I had an emotional break down this morning when I was sitting on my usual stool waiting for her to jump up on my lap.

I wanted to share a short story about her ’sharing’ my breakfast.  It was a Saturday morning (thank goodness).  I was eating my usual bowl of cereal and Hera was sitting on my lap as usual.  I was basically done eating and just chatting with Mark.  All of a sudden she reaches a sly paw up over the rim of the bowl and yanks as hard as she can.  Milk goes pouring over her, me, the stool, the floor…everywhere.  It was not exactly what she had in mind.  Her curiosity got the best of her that day.

There are two other things about her that I miss and will continue to miss if she can’t return home: her love and ability to catch and kill bugs.  Of the three cats, she is by far the most loving.  It can be a bit much sometimes and I’m not sure how it’ll go with the baby.  But anytime I’m laying down in front of the tv, she’s there with me.  She purrs more than Purrball (which is saying something!) and she cuddles more than Star (which is also actually saying something).  Overall I just like having a lap cat and she is definitely that.

Oh yeah, and Mark shouldn’t be allowed to use the fly swatter so she needs to come home and kill the flies.  Even if she only actually stuns them so we can kill them easier.

I’m sure everyone is ready to move on from the two bumbling cat lovers over here, so I’ll be done.  I still miss her though.