...somehow kitties live here too...

I say this like I have no idea how it happened, when I'm the exact person who made it happen.

I'm not sure how to say this, but we had a significant mouse problem when we took over this house on December 29th. Like...we knew there were mice...what we did not know was that there was a literal army of rodents, freely living here like it was their actual home.

On the first weekend we owned the house, Josh set traps under the kitchen sink and within a half hour we had caught EIGHT mice.

EIGHT.

So we plugged some holes around the foundation, set a bunch of traps, made sure the entire house was clean (even during renovation!) and we continued to catch mice all winter, all spring, and consistently at least one a week for much of the summer.

I lost count of how many we'd caught somewhere north of 60.

Mav's first look at his new kitties.

When Jamie and I went to Waco for five days, I came back to mouse poop in places where it had never been before. Places we thought were 'safe' from the invasion (at this point we were usually catching them in Josh's 'Man Cave' which is the most unfinished part of the house/utility room, so it was a problem but it didn't really 'disturb' me...finding it in Maverick's closet DISTURBED ME) and we decided to finally wave the white flag and call a pest company.

Embarrassing for people who a. Think their house is too clean for mice, and B. People who like to do things themselves instead of paying for someone else to do them.

I'll let you guess who is who.

Anyway, after the pest people came THE PROBLEM GOT WORSE. It's like they'd trapped the mice INSIDE the house, when they were previously coming and going freely through mouse holes all around our foundation and chimney. I couldn't even decide which one of those things was worse! There were fat mice. And black mice. And teeny tiny BABY MICE. And now that they were all trapped inside our house, we just had to sit back and wait for a trap to catch them or have them die in our walls.

It was a really fun week.

Meanwhile, everyone I talked to about our mice problem, looked at me matter-a-factly and said..."You need to get cats." I heard it over and over. From strangers and friends and 'cat people' and normal people. I heard it enough that it finally started to sink in.

And because I was desperate, I figured...it was definitely worth a try. Why couldn't we get cats? Kitties can be cute? More animals around here might be fun?

One quick text to a friend, and I had two little girl kitties headed up from Missouri within the week.

This was real, it was happening, and I did it all to myself. But do you know what?

Darnit if our kitties aren't the cutest stupid thing ever. I hate that they're so cute. They make me sneeze and the way they bury their poop grosses me out so much but ALSO WHY ARE THEY SO ADORABLE. They wrestle and play and jump three feet in the air and it's hilarious. I could watch them all day. The way they cuddle up and sleep together is TOO MUCH. We tried naming them 'Amy and Penny' after Big Bang Theory, because Sheldon's 'Soft Kitty' song gets stuck in our heads anytime we've been around them...but that didn't really stick. Gray Kitty and Stripe Kitty are what's stuck for me and Mav because neither of us are great at creatively 'naming' things ("Mav, what do you want to name your car?" "Green car." ...I mean it just makes sense).

We've just tried to be really laid back about it otherwise...there's a chance they'll run away...or be hit on the highway...or be taken away at night by some animal larger than they are...this is apparently the life of outdoor kitties, and we are now outdoor kitty owners so I'm not going to get too precious about it.

Josh has surprisingly taken the strongest liking to the kitties. I catch him cuddling them randomly on the porch...helping them out of a tree with a ladder...and whistling them across the yard to get them to play and sleep on our bedroom porch. I asked why he liked them so much and he said, "It's just nice to have other living things out here, ok?!"

And I'm not sure it's even correlated at this point because they're still little and it seems like they stick to their spot near the shed...but we haven't had a mouse in the house since they've been outside.

I don't even care about anything else.

And THAT, friends, is the story of why we have kittens.

MmB

I mean, COME ON.