Lily

Lily

(Hey, it's Boxing Day.)

I had myself convinced for years I wasn't a "pet person." Didn't have a dog nor a cat. Tried goldfish once. They died. Almost immediately.

Then my son brought home Lily about two years ago from the animal shelter. She was just a kitten. The story was she was found in a tree by a woman who named her "Lily" and took her to the animal shelter.

And now I'm a cat person. I might be a dog person if I we had a dog, too.

Lily is a stubborn kitty. She likes to go behind the TV and scratch at the carpet. So we blocked her way back there. Last night she tried to jump over a stereo speaker to get back there. It didn't work. But she was close.

One thing I really enjoy about Lily but haven't been able to do lately, is hold her while she sleeps. I have to let her fall asleep somewhere, then gently pick her up, shushing and scratching her neck to keep her calm, then sit down and keep shushing and scratching her neck until she falls back asleep. But lately she doesn't fall back asleep. She has stayed in my arms letting me pet her, but only for a bit.

But it's funny (to me) how I went from "I don't want pets" to "I love Lily." She is my son's cat so if he moves out, he'll take her with him. I don't know if I'll get a cat after that.

Lily loves Nerf darts. We'll throw them and she'll chase them (if she's in the mood, otherwise she just watches). She really isn't very interested in the laser. She likes to sleep. In the summer she'll sleep in sunbeams. In the winter she'll sleep on heat vents. I wonder how much that costs me to heat up the cat and not the house.

Yes, we love Lily.

Do you have a pet you love? Let me know about them in the comments.