We've got a kitty!

Temporarily though. Our friend Xeo had to go see his family back in California, so we offered to take care of his cat while he was gone. Rather than stop by his place every day (which, while it would be on the way during a work day, it would be out of the way during non-working days) we opted to cat-sit by bringing her to our house. We were a bit worried since cats can get rather crazy when you move them to a new location, and we fully expected her to stay in her carrier for days.

But she surprised us and after just one day, when we opened the door to the pantry where her carrier, food, and litter box was, she came out and started exploring. When we were at our computers, she came by and hung around our feet. She's such a sweet kitty....

Whateley's been loving it since he's a huge animal lover. Whenever the cat comes around, he drops to his stomach to pet her and scratch behind her ears. I like having an animal around, actually. I didn't really grow up with pets (though sometimes not for lack of trying), but after college, I've always had roommates that had pets. But it's really nice to be doing your thing and then I catch out of the corner of my eye this little furry being just sniffing around.

The only annoying thing is that she's a very furry cat, and no matter how much you brush her, she still sheds fur wherever she goes. So far it hasn't gotten too bad, but it won't be long before we have cat hair all over table legs, sofas, and the carpet. I've been lazy about vaccuuming, but we really can't with a cat around.

Another thing is, I think I'm allergic to her in some way. I don't seem to get the classic allergy symptoms, like itchy, watery eyes, sniffles, and sneezes. But mostly I get stuffy noses, and every morning in the shower, green and/or white gunk comes out of my nose and I can breathe normally for a few hours before it starts getting clogged up again. It's usually worse during work days when I have to step outside, and Texas pollen drives my nose nuts. When I just hang around the house, though, it's usually not as bad. But the past few days, my nose has gotten really stuffy. It's hard to tell, though, whether or not it's the cat or if there's a new type of pollen in the air. After all, with the rainy season upon us, the pollen count has risen.

All that aside, I'm considering whether or not to get a pet. Whateley really wants a dog, but we work such long hours that a dog would go nuts being alone for 13 hours a day. So we were thinking of getting a cat, except that Whateley's somewhat allergic to them and we'd have to keep the house a lot cleaner. Well, having Xeo's cat around for the next few weeks should help us figure out whether or not we can keep a cat. We're thinking of trying to have a kid sometime soon, and we're both very lazy. Having to take care of a pet in addition to taking care of a kid sounds like more work.