$5.99

I know that I've been away from home for too long because the boys are starting to go crazy. Their schedules are all out of whack. Normally, our days consist mostly of writing and cleaning, cooking and crafting, or going for walks along the beach, a little exercising. Then their Papa comes home and it's a love fest, followed by dinner and a movie on the couch. These days they've been alone pretty much all day while I work. When I come home, I make dinner, go for a short walk (if their lucky), and maybe squeeze in some crafting (if I'm lucky), then bam - sleep. So yesterday, they went on strike.


Together they decided to bark ALL DAY LONG while I was working. My neighbor called it, "incessant barking." Today, I tried something that many people I know would think is utterly ridiculous. For $5.99 I bought The Adventures of Milo and Otis and I played it for them on the T.V. while I was gone. They did not bark at all today my neighbor said.


When I worked for UC Berkeley I  knew a lady named Lola who had a cat named Emiliano and she would play "cat movies" for Emiliano while she was at work. She told me that her cat loved them. "How do you know he loves them?" I asked her, and she told me that he wouldn't scratch up the furniture. If she forgot to play Emiliano his cat movies however, there would be new snags on her silk comforter and scratches on her suede couch. In truth I never really believed her story. I'm a believer now.


It makes me wonder...what have we done to make these animals so...spoiled? Then I remember all of the unconditional love they give, how they make us laugh, how they lower our blood pressure and we theirs. I think of how Sailor stands near me in the kitchen when I cook at all hours of the day without fail. How right at this moment Mick is laying on the wood floor at my feet under the table, when there is a plush rug just a few inches away.


Then I think to myself, I bet they'd love The Adventures of Lassy!