Our latest Animal Adventure!

Every "farm" needs a cat, right? Right?!!?!? Please say yes, because that is basically how we justified allowing this handsome fluff of sweetness join the craziness that we call home:

So, meet Domino, the black and white cat that adopted Hubby mid-December at work. To tell the whole story, Hubby teaches middle school and does car line in the afternoon, which entails calling into the office via walkie-talkie which students' parents are waiting for them outside. Well, one afternoon, Hubby took notice of a cute kitty and called it over and gave it some tender pets and scratches behind the ears. Well, Friendly Kitty was used to living on the streets and was not accustomed to such lovely treatment and was quick to demand more! In fact, when Hubby ceased petting his new furry friend, Friendly Kitty would claw at his pants leg or even jump up onto his back until Hubby resumed! Hubby reported that it behaved more like a dog than a cat, which is good, because we are, simply put, *NOT* cat people.

So, basically, Hubby pet him once and that was it, the cat came back to see him every afternoon and with an impending snowfall, Hubby's anti-cat policy was forever and miraculously changed. He brought the ball of cuteness home and we set it up on the front porch. Then, after watching the temperature plummet and about 12 inches of snow fall (pretty unusual for us, even here in the NC mountains), our hearts softened even further (I know, we didn't think they could bleed any more either) and we set him up in our laundry room. So, he is officially an outdoor kitty who is welcome to overnight on our dirty laundry if he shows up before lights out.

Faith figured out fairly quickly (why does this even surprise me anymore?) how to climb onto the top of the washing machine to visit with her new pet while he eats.

Obviously, he is REALLY good with Faith, and she LOVES him, since he is small enough for her to haul around as pictured above (although once I caught her holding him "bottom up," with no struggle from him to get away!!!). After the first few days, he even made peace with Maisy and Moppett, which I consider to be affirmation that of all cats in the world, this one was meant for us. I have long regarded myself as "NOT a cat person" (they usually hiss at me!!!) and Hubby has horrible allergies to almost everything, but especially cats, so we were NOT in the market for a cat. But, as they say, you don't choose a cat, a cat chooses you. And we are perfectly happy to be adopted by Domino!

Now, if only he will earn his keep and become a mouser...