A gentleman caller comes to visit.

Over the Christmas holidays, Grayson and I strongly considered adding to our family in the form of a 4-legged, furry creature. Determining the parameters for this addition wasn't difficult in the slightest because we knew we wanted:

* A 5-9 lb weight limit
* Anything in the colors of white, black or dark brown
* Something that was friendly & well-behaved
* It to sit on our laps in the evenings while watching tv

After looking all around northern Louisiana, something happened inadvertantly. We realized we already had this addition in our family found in our sweet, little TC!

Having already taken a two week vacation in the carribbean I found myself with another two weeks off from work. During this break I was able to stay at home and catch up on laundry, finish Christmas decorations, complete last minute gift wrapping and plan for Grayson's birthday party. With Grayson gone all day long at work though, I found myself desiring some sort of companionship (thus the idea for a DOG!). But what ended up happening was that I opened the door and let TC come in and play and she became my companion. Next thing I knew, we were letting her in at night time teaching her to lay on our laps. All the while, we were talking about wanting to add a pet to the family we were actually inviting TC to play this role. She fit all of our qualifications to a t!

I will admit that the whole have a "friendly" pet has taken some work on our part. We might be one of the only cat owners who actually "discipline" their cat. After a few pops on her head she has learned how to not get on the toilet, not bite your arm and not get near your food :) Since she wasn't immunized and was slightly on the 'bitey' side, it concerned many of our friends and family that we might get cat-scratch-fever so ... TC became a legitimate member of our family yesterday when she received all her immunizations and scheduled her spaying appointment.

This leads me into something funny. TC has what we like to call, a gentleman caller. Upon my return to the house one afternoon I was surprised to find TC entertaining a guest outside of our house. An ugly, furry, matted down "friend" had come to play. Taking Bob Barker's golden words of advice to heart, we have not allowed our cat to go outside in the past three weeks. No, this doesn't fall under the form of cat abuse, rather it is us protecting ourselves from more unwanted family members. So, until we could schedule her doctor's appointment we have forced her to stay inside, away from her "friend". It's been quite comical to watch the courting process of felines during this season.

Let me introduce a mad, slightly frustrated TC.

Tell me this, would YOU let your cat out when that thing was outside waiting for her?

This is all he did ... for like four hours straight!!!

Grayson went ahead and made it official though, by paying for TC to get vaccinated. When he told me we only paid $6 for a "crate" I was very impressed. When I came home and saw this cardboard box, I thought "Why didn't we just get a paper bag and poke holes in it? It would have been much cheaper and equally as supportive!"

Anyways, I promise not to post many blogs about our cat, but for now I thought I would keep you posted on her status as we are now officially (sadly) a "cat family"! And to close, I want to inform you of the precious way she showed her appreciation for being adopted into the Allen family ... she peed on our bed!