Something Different

LeRoy as a Kitten

I was talking to Jay a few days ago when I mentioned that I missed writing. Although I'm not particularly good at it, it can be enjoyable and relaxing for me. He suggested “ You could write more on the blog, if you want. You know, you should share the funny stories you tell me when I get home from work....You could write about what makes your life different and crazy....”

Well, I think that could be fun! Maybe I will try a few posts and see how I like it!

I think I will start by introducing a subject that I have many many stories about.

Our cat, LeRoy. His name is said many, many times over at our house in the course of a day. And it is said something like this “LEEROYYYYYY!!” I am sure that if I keep this blogging up, you like me, will become very familiar with this cry of desperation, horror, hilarity and ONCE in awhile, fondness.

Leroy ended up becoming part of our family due to the kindness of my husband.

Months before LeRoy came to live with us I had wanted to get a kitten, after my own cat who I brought from Kansas had disappeared. Together we had gone to the animal shelter to adopt one but the shelter didn't have any kittens. Just teenage cats. I didn't want to refuse a kitty a home because it didn't fit my criteria – so of course I brought one home! ( I named her Jinx – and I'll tell her story in another post!)

What I didn't know, was that Jay felt badly that I didn't end up getting “my kitten”. So, Jay brought home a little kitten as a surprise for me one winter day. The little guy was orange and white, scrawny, and very sick,. He was so congested he could barely breathe yet somehow was managing to purr his heart out. “I picked the sickest one” said Jay, “I didn't figure anyone else would take a sick kitten and I wanted to make sure he got taken care of.” (I love that man!) Anyhow, there was this cute, smelly, kitten who was acting like he was our best friend, purring, rubbing against us and sneezing on us!

He was called “Kitten” for a long time. Jay and I simply could not come up with a name for him...he was too much of a character for any normal cat name!

Kitten was fast becoming a terror as he began feeling better. I've had many kittens in my life but none like this one. I would be washing the dishes and he would come over to me- if I did not immediately pay attention to him, he would leap onto my leg and begin to climb straight up...digging his pointy kitten claws into my leg as soon as he landed and continue climbing up one claw at a time. Or sometimes he would just hang where he landed – claws dug in so deeply that with gravity pulling him down he could not get them out and he had to be manually removed.

Kitten also could not grasp the fact that you could be unhappy with him. You could yelp from the pain he was causing you, yell at him, spray water at him and even give him a little spank while saying NO! very sharply. He just looked at you and purred louder. The only way we survived was by locking him in the bathroom for a while when we could not take another second of his “love”.

Kitten was also incredibly unclean! He would go outside and come back in with mud all over his legs. He lacked any desire to groom himself. One of the worst unclean acts he ever committed turned into a bad, bad day. Our dogs were being house trained and one of them had an accident, thankfully on our wood floor and not on the carpet. It was one of the worst smelling accidents imaginable! While I was retrieving the necessary tools for cleaning up the mess, Kitten discovered the smelly, runny substance. By the time I returned, the carnage was unbelievable. Kitten had jumped in it, played in it, gotten covered in it, and was tearing around the house, spreading the joy to whatever surface he touched.

That might have been the moment we realized that yelling “KITTEN!!!!” was not enough. We needed to be able to wail something that could voice our pain...something like “LEEROYYYYYY!!!!!!!”

Thankfully, LeRoy, has grown up a lot in the year and few months since we have owned him.

He has filled out into a beautiful, BIG cat. He has long hair and an incredibly long and poofy tail that looks as if he is in a constant state of shock.

He is now meticulously clean and we find ourselves yelling “LEEROYYYY!!!” from across the room at him when he insists on making a snack out of one of the burrs that he pulls out of his hair.

He still has very little concept of the fact that he ever does anything wrong. With his generous nature, he is sure the world loves him just as much as he loves everyone in the world.

He makes us laugh and drives us crazy. Well I must be crazy. What sane person would be writing a blog post while hiding in the bathroom from a certain cat who is scratching the paint off the door and crying his heart out?!

Excuse me while I just say“LEEEEROOOOOOYYYYY!!!!” (: