Introducing Mr. H!
His cat-buddy, Mr. R will not have his pic here as there is something quite distinctive about him and I don’t want the wall lizards and birds to recognize him. (or, sorry, you, dear reader!)
This sit was another “who you know” sit. I never under-estimate the power of connection – it’s like a built-in reference. A reference for me AND a reference for the pet family… in this case, connections from all the kids growing up at about the same time and all us parents being friends.
The last comment is a bit of a tip – the two things I remain concerned about is pet-sits with cats who spend time outside and dogs who don’t know me very well going off-leash. In this case, I knew the parents of pet-parents so I took this beautiful big boy over to “gramma and grampa’s” house and he was thrilled to race about the back yard, leaving his extraordinarily large dumps as loving deposits in their absence. (yes, I scooped each and every double-bagger he left!)
He really was a sweetheart! So sweet that when he leapt his massive frame onto my bed at 5:45 AM most mornings and decided big sloppy kisses were the perfect wake-up call, I could do nothing but wake up laughing, covering my face with my arms! You just can’t get upset with this guy!
I also need to discuss Mr. R – the feline member of this family. My grandson’s first observation was that I wasn’t really a cat person. I love ’em all so the comment made me realize how wary Slasher Cat had made me of cats.
Mr. R was nothing like that. Independent but friendly enough at the start soon turned into more companionship and my training program. 🙂
I do need to admit that Mr. R decided to sleep on my bed one night (they both did, thank goodness for big beds!). Call it post-menopause, whatever, but my legs cold-seek in the night. Not finding cool spots with both beasts on the bed one night, I stuck my leg out from under the duvet. I did something wrong, obviously as I felt ten claws and umpteen teeth sink into my big toe and foot. Again, when the pets are so lovely, but having come off Slasher-sit, I was able to waken enough to sit up, remove all those sharp things from my foot with my hands, pet said attacker, and we all went back to sleep, my foot carefully redeposited under the duvet.
Thank you, Mr. R for getting me past my (apparently) traumatic time with Slasher Cat!
I’m three months into this house- and pet-sit life and I’m really enjoying it!
