Day 9 of 365 days of Being Grateful

        Today I am grateful for our cat, Nittany.   He is sweet and funny and playful!

Our crazy cat follows the Roomba from room to room! As soon as he hears the Roomba, he comes running from another part of the house and sits and watches it!

  When Amy was little, she would beg for a cat but Dan always refused with his statement  saying "I HATE CATS." She begged for a cat constantly.  One day when we were riding in the car and she was about 4, she said to me "Mom, if Dad dies, then can we get a cat?" I said, Probably we would.  After her years of begging, I told Dan many years ago, "I am 40 years old and I always had cats when I was younger and Amy and Renee really want a cat so we are getting a cat.  Don't go near it, don't pet it, don't feed it, don't touch it, don't look at it, we will do all of the work but we are getting a cat.  Amy took riding lessons at a stable that had barn cats.  When one of the cats had a litter, we decided to get a kitten.  The kitten was white with one gray marking on it's side which looked like a smile.  She named the cat Smiley!  When we brought the cat home, he immediately went to Dan.  We told Dan to leave him alone but in a few minutes the cat was in his lap.  Smiley was the greatest cat!  He would come when he was called, most cats come when they feel like it. Smiley would sit at the top of the driveway and wait for the school bus with Renee. Dan loved the cat, he was always holding it and petting it. Whenever he was holding the cat,  I would say put the cat down, YOU HATE CATS!! After Smiley we had three more cats before Nittany.  Benson was Amy's cat. He really only ever loved Amy.  When Benson died, we had him cremated and buried him in Amy's grave.  Olivia has been bugging us for a cat for a few years. She kept saying, "you let Joe, Amy, and Renee have a cat, why can't me and Olya have one?  You always say that you treat your kids equally!"  She plays the adoption card when she thinks it will work for her.  She finally decided she would be happy with a guinea pig.  I didn't want that!  So I agreed she could get a cat.  We picked out Nittany at the SPCA in the kitten room.  They told us he was four months old, but he was just big for his age. They said he didn't really play with the other kittens because he knew he was bigger than the rest of them  Dan thought he would be sturdy being outside in our yard. After we adopted him and took him home, we called our vet and made an appointment for him.  The vet said "this is NOT a four month old "big" kitten, he is closer to a year old! He has a full set of choppers!" So we weren't told the correct age but we loved him so it didn't matter. The kittens cost $120 to adopt, the cats were free to adopt because it was a special adoption day.  I guess we made $120 donation to the SPCA that day! Nittany actually comes when we call him to come inside.  Sometimes he meows back at us when we call him from the outside like he is complaining about it but he still comes in.  If he isn't happy about coming in, he usually swipes his paw at Dan's leg,(not with his claws out).

         Nittany carries things around in his mouth! He is like a little kid and takes his toys from room to room.  When our last cat, Marvin, was alive, he had a cat friend that would come and scratch on our patio door for Marvin to come out. It was so funny, I would open the door and Marvin and his friend, the orange cat would run and play together. After Marvin died, we never saw the orange cat again. Now that we have Nittany, the orange cat has shown up outside our patio door again. That was so strange the first night he showed up outside the patio door!.  We haven't let Nittany out at night yet so the orange cat only comes around once in awhile.