Has this Ever Happened to You?
It was a fine summer evening, and I had just settled into my bed when suddenly I heard a noise in the hall. I sat up and listened to see if it was just my sleepy imagination. It happened again. It sounded like something sliding across the wood floor. My husband slept soundly as I got up to investigate. I slowly peered out into the hall way and there it was, a tiny kitten. The kitten was swatting a pen around on the floor. My first thought was, we don’t own a cat? As I walked toward the little kitty, my second thought was, where the heck did this cat come from?
My teenage daughter’s bedroom door was slightly open, and knowing my children, I knew she was most likely responsible. I picked up the kitten and walked into her room. I said her name softly at first, then repeated it loudly (if you have a teen in your house you understand the necessity of loud). When she finally rolled over and looked at me, I smiled and said, “Who is this?” She sat up quickly and told me that she had found the kitten in a typical teenage one breath flurry of words. “Mom, I found it abandoned, I mean someone just left it outside the mall in a box, I couldn’t just leave it there, you raised me to be a good person, I’m supposed to be a good person right, and so I just had to bring it home, I mean what did you want me to do, I didn’t really have a choice!” As that was all in one breath, I told her to breathe. She took a deep breath and then before I could get a word out… “Mom, really I was gonna tell you, I just didn’t know when, and I just had to bring it home, and look how cute, and I know you are gonna say no, but I really want to keep it, and I don’t see why I can’t, I’ll take care of it, you didn’t even know it was here for two days, hm… ah, but I was going to tell you. Can we keep her? PLEASE!!!” Again kid, breathe.
It’s kind of a cute story about how we ended up with our cat snowball. Cute until I tell you that the next morning, in the light of day, I realized that the kitten was covered in fleas! We took her to the vet to get her checked out, and to get rid of the fleas. She was a healthy kitten, they gave her a bath and cleaned her up and we took her home. A few weeks later I noticed a flea on the kitten. She hadn’t been outside, where did they come from? She got another bath, and I cleaned the house, but still a little while later fleas again! I bought some flea powder stuff at the store, you’re supposed to put on your carpet, let it sit and then vacuum. It seemed to work for a bit, but then fleas! I was so frustrated that I was about to tear out all of the carpet in the house! Instead my husband called in professional help to get rid of the fleas. We have been flea free since.
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