On Saturday, after spending time with the in-laws, we visited North Shore Animal League America. We were “just going to look” because we were planning on getting the boys their first pet this summer.
(Note to self: don’t take the kids around a bunch of cute animals unless you are planning to come home with one of them!)
All three of my guys fell for Tiger (formerly known as Pongo), a one year old mixed-breed cat right away. We hit a snag in the adoption process though, because of Reggie’s allergies. The workers at North Shore are passionate about their jobs. We had to provide personal references, management company information, and such. They checked all of them while we waited. (They were more thorough checking references for that cat than some parents are for their kids’ caregivers!) At one point, I was getting a little annoyed. The kids had already become attached to the cat, but they wouldn’t give us the “okay” until after they were able to talk with someone who owned a cat that Reggie had been around without having an allergic reaction. I understand it though. They really do care about their pets. They want to make sure that potential owners don’t make emotional decisions and then try to return their pets a few days later when their allergies start acting up. Fortunately, everything worked out. (That’s good because Michael and Sean weren’t leaving without “their” cat.)
After the “adoption”, we went to the pet store across the street to stock up on basic supplies. Cat litter? Check. Cat food? Check. The kids wanted to buy everything in the store, but I convinced them to pace themselves. One thing that I should have listened to them about and purchased on that initial trip was a scratching post. (I realized that once Tiger started scratching on my couch…uh, no!) We will be getting that shortly. Other than that, he’s set.
When we brought Tiger home, he immediately ran into the boys room under Sean’s bed. The kids tried everything that they could in order to get him to come out…to no avail. (He would eat and drink when everyone left the room.) They were so cute though. Every few hours, they would lean down and say, “Hi Tiger” in a sing-song voice. At bed-time, they would lean down and say, “Good night Tiger. We love you.” After playing hard to get for a couple of nights, Tiger now plays with them in the evenings. They are beyond thrilled…and so am I.
