The Cat Came Back!

Where there's a will, there's a way. And I must say Addie really did will this cat here. She's wanted a pet so badly and we've been pretty firm about saying no, so she finally took matters into her own hands. For the last couple months Addie's been "hunting" for a cat in the woods behind our house. I figured it was pretty harmless. No cat was going to let her catch it. However, two weeks ago she surprised me by bringing a cat home. I didn't think much of it. I figured if we didn't feed it, it would go away. But, like the song my dad sang us as children, "the cat came back the very next day" and the next day and the next despite the loving abuse the kids doled out on it. It was the sweetest natured cat, just lounging on the back patio and letting the kids drag it every where and basking in the attention. The kids named it "Tiger" and it occupied most of their time every day. Finally after about a week, we broke down and bought it some cat food after I had found a couple of "kills" it had brought home from hunting. It continued to eat (a lot), lounge and tolerate the kids. I had even called around to see about getting it shots and neutered. As long as it didn't come in the house, I guess we could keep it. However, Addie fixed that. She decided to take it for a walk in the stroller. Half way through the walk it jumped out and ran into the woods. That was three days ago and we haven't seen it since. They great thing is, I think it gave the kids just the "pet fix" they needed. They say they miss "Tiger", but there isn't the non stop tears I thought there would be and there hasn't been begging for anymore pets - yet. That was the most painless pet experience I've ever had and I've had a pretty lengthy pet past.