So Happy to Own a Cat

I like dogs. Really. They are fun and funny and make great friends.

I don't own a dog because they are also very labor intensive. A dog requires outdoor walks frequently, lots of exercise if it is a high energy or working breed, and plenty of consistent training.

While I would enjoy dog ownership, I know I would do the poor animal a disservice, and it would not be as well trained as it should be. I wouldn't be able to put the time and effort into it that the animal would deserve.

So, I have cats. Yes, the fosters are a lot of work, but that comes in waves, they grow and get adopted. Their training consists of introducing them to a litter box at 3 1/2 to 4 weeks. Their instinct is to bury their business, so they sniff and scratch and squat, and they are trained.

Yet, there are times, like now, when I am so happy to own a cat, I could just barf. Oh, wait, never mind, one of the cats already did it for me. Right in the middle of the carpet. Or worse, the bed.

Daily chores for the cat owner -- dishes, laundry, sweeping, cleaning cat barf.

Last night, I went in to my bedroom to get ready for bed, and smelled it right away. Not barf, this time one of them had gifted me with a puddle on the bed and my pillow.

I'm so happy to be a cat person, so happy, so happy...


Today is

Clean Air Day, Canada

Constitution Day, Tunisia

Eel Festival, Denmark

Festival of Light and Dark Spots -- Fairy Calendar

Festival of Utter Confusion (this is the one for me!)

Hristo Botev Day, Bulgaria

Independence Day, Italy (the day Italy became a Republic in 1946)

National Bubba Day

National Rocky Road Day

National Tailors Day

Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival, through the 6th

Scripps National Spelling Bee, through the 4th

St. Blandina's Day (patron of girls)

St. Elmo's Day (a/k/a St. Erasmus; patron of sailors, childbirth;
against seasickness, stomachaches)

St. Nicephorus' Day

St. Pothinus' Day

Yell "Fudge" at the Cobras in North America Day

Visaka Bucha Day


Anniversaries Today:

U.S. President Grover Cleveland marries Frances Folsom, 1886
(only president to wed in the executive mansion)
Elizabeth II is crowned Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Her Other Realms and Territories & Head of the Commonwealth, 1953 (the first major international event to be televised)


Birthdays Today:

Justin Long, 1978
Zachary Quinto, 1977
Queen 'Masenate Mohato Seeiso, Queen consort of Lesotho, 1976
Wayne Brady, 1972
Joel Tobeck, 1971
Dana Carvey, 1955
Dennis Haysbert, 1954
Cornel West, 1953
Jerry Mathers, 1948
Marvin Hamlisch, 1944
Stacy Keach, 1941
Charlie Watts, 1941
Sally Kellerman, 1937
Johnny Weissmuller, 1904
Hedda Hopper, 1890
Sir Edward Elgar, 1857
Thomas Hardy, 1840
Marquis de Sade, 1740
Martha Dandridge Custiss Washington, 1731


Today in History:

The Vandals enter Rome and begin 2 weeks of plundering, 455
The First Siege of Antioch ends when Crusader forces take the city, 1098
The first Récollet missionaries arrive at Quebec City, from Rouen, France, 1615
Bridget Bishop is the first person to go to trial in the Salem witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts, 1692
The Derby horserace is held for the first time in Epsom, England, 1780
P. T. Barnum and his circus start their first tour of the United States, 1835
The Slavic congress in Prague begins, 1848
Guglielmo Marconi applies for a patent for his early radio device, 1896
U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signs the Indian Citizenship Act, making Native American Indians withing US territories and states US citizens, 1924
Lou Gehrig begins his 2,130 consecutive games played, 1925
In a referendum, Italians vote to turn Italy from a monarchy into a Republic, and exile their king, Umberto II di Savoia, 1946
The USSR and Yugoslavia sign the Belgrade declaration and thus normalize relations, 1955
Surveyor 1 lands in Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon, becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to soft land on another world, 1966
Pope John Paul II visits his native Poland, becoming the first Pope to visit a Communist country, 1979
The Bhutan Broadcasting Service brings television transmissions to the Kingdom for the first time, 1999
Europe launches its first voyage to another planet, Mars, 2003