Portraits and Poses

Portraits & Poses

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Just a few new photos this week. Charlotte started walking around with her hands in her jeans pocket and looked very cute. And I came home from work to Audrey looking adorable wearing a bandanna on her head and she was kind enough to pose for some portraits.

We had a funny thing happen this past week. We had the windows open on one of the two nice days we had midweek. In the evening, I discovered water splashed around the toilet in the master bath, which is just below a ground level window. I looked around to see if any critter had come in through the window and hidden in a closet or something, but I didn't find anything.

In the morning, Audrey told Carol, "There was a puppy outside my bedroom door last night. I could see his paws." Carol chuckled and told Audrey she must have been dreaming (Audrey tells us every few days how much she wants a puppy - a pink one).

But that afternoon while Charlotte napped, Carol was downstairs with Audrey when they heard a "meow". They looked at each other, puzzled. Then they heard more, and upon investigation discovered a neighborhood cat under Carol and my bed. They were able to coax him out and he was very friendly. By now Charlotte was up from her nap and both girls got to pet the cat a bunch.

The cat seemed to be convinced that he could only leave the way he came in. But Carol coaxed him upstairs with some salmon and then gently encouraged him out the door.

So we got to tell Audrey that she really had seen paws under her door in the night! She was really happy that the cat thought her room was the way out.

Carol and I have been having a long-running conversation about pets because Audrey asks for a puppy all the time and Charlotte loves dogs. Carol had dogs growing up. My family had a cat. I've had cats most of my adult life, but not for the past 10 years. I don't consider myself much of a dog person. The licking, the shedding, the walking, the poop-scooping, etc. does not appeal to me. And it seems like dogs are much more problematic to arrange for when the family goes on vacation.

So we'll probably get a cat. That has it's own issues. My cats have always been indoor/outdoor. But we live right next to a large wooded park with raccoons and even coyotes. I'm concerned an outdoor cat may not last long here. But I'm no fan of litter boxes. And I'm also not a fan of de-clawing a purely indoor cat.

A good friend with two daughters advises that it might be a little early for us. Her daughters didn't react well to being scratched by a playing kitten.

So we'll see. We're not going to do anything right away. But when we see kittens up for adoption on the news or something we're always very tempted.

In other news, Charlotte is really starting to discover the magic of speech. She says at least one new word every day. Last night it was "rice". The day before that: "broccoli". The other night when I was reading her a bedtime book and it featured a cat, she told me a long story about the cat that was in our house and how she petted it and how Mommy gave it some food. A lot of it was even comprehensible.