The animal shelter

My dog-loving daughter and I went to the animal shelter today to take a look at some dogs and start thinking about getting one.

We walked out of there two hours later desperately in love with two cats.

There's a difference between the life of a cat and the life of a dog in the shelter. Walking through the dog section makes you feel like Clarice when she went to meet Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs. The dogs are in their own individual cages lined up along the perimeter of a long room. You are supposed to walk past the cages, staying to the middle of the room. You are not to stop walking and not to point at a dog or linger in front of a cage. This is to avoid riling the dogs up. As you walk down and back through the middle of the room, you are to glance over and eyeball each of the dogs. If you see one you like, you have to go to the front desk and request to see that dog. They bring the dog to the front where you are separated by glass and can only communicate via a telephone. Okay, I made that last part up. But the dog kennel is a lot like prison.

The cats are all housed together in one big room with cat houses and scratching posts and a section with a bunch of food and water bowls and another section with litter boxes all lined up. There are carriers everywhere where cats can jump in and rest, then jump out again. There are crocheted blankets for the cats to lie on and space heaters for them to lounge in front of. Every day at 5pm, all the cats get together in a big circle, join paws, and sing their praises to a pagan goddess. Okay, I made that last part up. But it's a cat resort. And we can come in and hang out with the cats as long as we want. Just park ourselves on the floor and pet and play with whatever cat will let us. So we did. For two hours.

I didn't see a single dog that I had any interest in even meeting and I wanted to immediately take home half the cats there. Two 6- and 7-month-old kitties ended up being our favorites. Greg says he would love to have a cat, too, so he can roast it for dinner.

I will keep you posted on whether these cats end up as part of our family. Two-thirds of the family reeeeeeeaaaaalllllyyyy want them.

And just before bed, the three of us did a joint interpretive dance to a song called Ieva's Polka. Here's the music, which one You Tube video set to an anime girl twirling a leek. The song is almost 10 minutes long and once you've heard it for 30 seconds, you've heard the whole song. It's that repetitive. But damn is it catchy.