Our Cats

We have talked about getting a cat for the last few years, but it never seemed like a convenient time. The talk starting getting serious about a year ago, and we decided that maybe after we returned from the States in July that we could look into it. At first we thought that we would buy a cat in Beijing from a reputable vet there to make sure that it was healthy and received all the shots that it needed. But we couldn't quite figure out the logistics of such a purchase - too much 麻烦 - ma fan (troublesome). So on our return we decided to risk the local pet market, which can sometimes be a scary place. Since I had made it known from the beginning that I wanted nothing to do with it - Laurel and the girls went looking on their own. By that time we had talked ourselves into getting two cats since we were already going to the trouble of getting one. How much more work could two be? We wanted to get females since apparently they are less of a problem for people with cat allergies (like me), but that was a problem as well. Apparently the local vets don't do very well spading females - usually botching the entire operation. So we were going to have them fixed for sure, we decided to get males.

Anyway, to make a long, boring story short (the purpose of this post was just so you could see a picture) we now have two cats in the house. Laurel and I wanted to name them Beijing and Bangkok, but the girls wanted Speedy and Spider. Somehow we ended up with the names BJ and Spider (the black one). For a while Laurel would sit with the cats in her lap every night and go on and on about how she loved having them. Lately they have been pretty wild, though, and there's not as much love going around. But she says that we should always have pets of some kind, that we are a pet family. Even I, who have never had a cat and never liked them very much, have grown to enjoy our two cats. Especially BJ, because he acts more like a dog then a cat. If you come and visit us he will probably jump right up in your lap, flip over on his back, and want you to rub his tummy.