Vacation, sunny and crisp, red and orange leaves on the trees outside, inside, finally just me and our new kittens, Aspen and Pine.

Memories flood back to me.

“The cats will keep you company.” my mom would say. The wood floors would creak as cats and dogs walked down the tiny dark hallway. Doors eternally open to allow free roaming inside and outside. The cold mornings in the valley, barefoot walking on frost covered ground with my cats and dogs. They took care of me.

My mom would say, “Crystal Bear will keep you company.” With her blue eyes and white fur, our favorite cats were always Siamese.

I think Aspen is a Russian Blue and Pine is a Bengal. My mom and I always felt a sense of pride telling people Crystal Bear was a Siamese. At least part Siamese. Pine’s claws are like razor blades in my legs as he moves between attacking my apron string and my computer screen.

The work of cats, the stench of the litter box, the scratching furniture, stink of wet food, recycling of cat food cans, why is an animal worth all of this extra work? How do animals take care of us?

My entire family were animal people. There’s not a person in my Homer family and my mom’s family, she would tell me about their Datson and show me pictures. The little brown long torso dog looked so cute standing at the feet of a woman in an apron with short curly hair and glasses, I only knew her for a short time, she died when I was six. Then there was a tall man in a black suit with slick back dark hair, he was a car salesman. He was adopted and I have no idea if his family liked animals? Then, right next to Datson was my mom as a little girl in a white dress with white socks and white patent leather shoes. She had beautiful blue eyes like a Siamese cat, short brown bangs and light brown hair.

My grandma and grandpa always had Salty and Pepper. I did ask them why they always named their dogs Salty and Pepper. They told me they liked the names Salty and Pepper, Salty was always wet and salty from swimming in the Sound and Pepper’s fur looked like pepper. These two things never changed, every time my grandparents’ dogs passed, they would immediately adopt a new black lab. Thier whole lives they had a series of black labs named Salty and Pepper.

Once Billy, my last surviving animal, died during this past pandemic, I decided to go without animals. It’s been almost three years. One deciding factor is I am almost done with school for FOREVER! (ish)

Also, at work, we have a Therapy Dog. One day she made a visit to our classroom. I had compression therapy. Ever since then, the most popular conversation between my own children and myself is when are we getting pets?

The past two weeks have been the most relaxing in my home. Aspen and Pine visit all the members of our home. Everyone feels relaxed with the cats sleeping on their laps. It feels like we need cats.