Get this out of the way for later squee filled goodness

You there! I need someone to tell me I'm not completely awful for doing this. No pressure though, k?

As you might recall, my cat died in February. Then Tiggy died in May. You might also recall that I've mentioned wanting another cat but not being sure I'm ready for one. Ari and I went to Petco yesterday where they had one cat. She's beautiful, I wish I'd managed to snap a picture. Anyway, I was still a little unsure but as they were putting her back in her cage, she turned and looked at me and I kinda fell.

She was over a year old, so she was free. Hrmm. Still, where could she stay in the house while she and the other animals acclimated to one another? Idea! I call the boy and ask if a) he's okay with me getting a cat. I'm not completely heartless and while he's always been the type to run out and get another animal pretty much ASAP, I know losing Tiggy was/is hard for him. He said he was totally fine with it and sounded like he meant it. Not entirely surprising given we'd talked about this a little before. Then I asked if b) she could stay in his room til the animals settled. He agreed if I promised to pick up anything on the floor and make sure the door to his bathroom was closed. Score!

Ari went around and bought supplies for her. We brought her back to Ari's since we had dinner reservations and Mums had sounded a little peeved when I mentioned that um, maybe a kitty had followed me home. And by peeved, I mean she sounded teary.

So that hangs over my head at dinner, which was a bit off to begin with as D was subdued (I gather a friend pissed him off to the point that they aren't friends anymore) and also Ari's mother was there. You ever do battle with someone's mother as a teenager and then never fully get over the whole "you treated your kids like crap and they can and have sort of forgiven you but..." angle? Yeah, probably just me. Anyway. A bit weird. Seafood. I drank a billion Sprites. Dunno why.

Back to the cat. So I call and ask Widget if he'll pick up his room and make it ready for the feline arrival if I pay him extra this Friday. He agrees and seems excited about the cat. I call back and ask if he'll put the dogs on the porch so we'll be able to bring the cat in more easily. At the time I thought we were leaving within ten minutes, but there was a not as brief as expected "move the old couch to the trash!" interval. I still can't raise my right arm above my shoulders.

Anyway. I get home and Widget is a mix of bouncey and bratty and Mums is nowhere to be found. Okay... Cat goes up to the boy's room and I make sure Widget picked up (not... that I could tell? But I also don't know what it looked like before so...) and then I filled the food and water dish, filled the cat box and unleashed the kitty-krakken. (I know. Should've taken a picture!) She immediately hid under Widget's bed. And stayed there for most of the next couple of hours, coming out briefly to immediately run back under the foot of the bed instead of the head.

I remember the dogs after about 20 minutes of being home and run to unleash them. Mums then gives me a fantastic guilt trip over the many reasons I should not have gotten a cat and how she thought I was on the same page and basically any squee that had managed to remain through Widget berating me and the moving of the couch and subsequent murder of my arm was immediately flushed right down the toilet.

Can't even snuggle new kitty because she's living in the boy's room and he's still asleep and also? Shy kitty is shy.

Kitty guilt. Low blow, guys. Low blow.