I have had cats ever since I moved to the farm.

Except for once a couple years ago when we only had one cat after a particularly good year for small mammal predators.

And except for the aforementioned year (the year I hosted Thanksgiving at my house) I haven’t had mice (oh yes, it’s just what you are thinking).  But I did have to work hard to keep stocked with mousers.  We recently dwindled to a feline population of two, but have had an infusion of new genetics.

A running buddy at the YMCA gave us a litter of five striped kittens this summer.  My sister gave us a litter of four shaggy kittens in October.  I found two cats abandoned on a country road a mile from my house last week.

And I love having the cats around, the kids adore them and, in case I didn’t mention this before, there are no mice in my house.

But seriously. 

Every time someone opens a door it’s like the titanic.  I swear I feed them plenty, they are FAT AND SASSY.  But they are like teenage boys on pizza and they know there is crunchy dry kitty food somewhere inside that house.

When the garage door comes up or down, it looks like that herding cats commercial from the Superbowl a couple of years ago.  I used to keep the cat food in the garage until an unfortunate incident when it was discovered and now they keep checking, just in case.

And poor Dottie – this is a cat who showed up starving and panicked about a year ago – she has recently had the worst case of tape worm I have ever seen.  Okay, seriously, do not read that link if you are grossed out by bugs, bodily functions, or parasites of any kind.

She was skeletal and emaciated.  She’s also not personable so won’t eat around the kittens (translation: She’s b!tchy.  she only likes people, not other cats.) I have a strict rule about no cats in the house but I have been letting her live in the dog kennel while she recuperates.  The first couple of days I didn’t know if she would make it – honestly people I thought she was going to die because I hadn’t noticed sooner that she was wasting away.  I felt awful, so she made it into this post.

She is recovered from the parasite now – the OTC kitty meds worked fine – her fur is shiny again and she is starting to fill out, she is cleaning herself and meowing and rubbing against people’s legs.  But she is still so weak.  Mostly she just lays down, even when I let her out of the kennel.  And it was 10 degrees (F) last night. 

So she is still in the house, even though this started at Thanksgiving.

I am SO SICK of changing litter.

And have I mentioned how much she is eating, seeing as she was basically dying of nutritional deficiencies beforehand?  So you can imagine.  Input.  Output.

Anyone want an indoor cat?  She’s very nice with people.