Walter Silvestersmith Stanley

Wally-Sly for short. Our new cat. We have a new cat. In the history of Stanley pets, and for Cali pets, period, this is a first.

I'm sure it dates back to my childhood, when I was diagnosed with allergies to cats. (A hereditary trait strung through my dad's family). Add to that an old crazy neighbor-lady, who, in addition to attempted spousal murder and leaving her three kids at home for days without word of where she was, had HUNDREDS of cats. Of course since she was never home, the house -- and the cats -- went unchecked. And they multiplied and multiplied, until they ran rampant. (Just so you know - people called social services on her all the time, but of course she always managed to clean up before the investigators got there)... I have memories of cats being up inside the car engines when the car was started (pop! fizz...), and once my mom went over to her house (I think to make sure the kids were okay, once when she was gone) and came back talking about awful smells and urine-soaked carpet (from the cats). Of course in my 6-year-old mind I didn't fully understand the situation, but somehow, maybe from these experiences, and the allergies, we never had a cat. (We only lived in that house a short time.)

When Geoff and I got married, we started off with rats. Two of them, Polly and Madonna. You'd be surprised but they each had their own personalities, and I actually cried when we had to put them to sleep due to illness.

Next we tried a puppy. A Black mini-schnauzer who was too smart for his own good. He got so bored at our house that we got him a companion, a black cocker-spaniel puppy. We kept them long enough to potty-train them and soon realized that between work and school, we did not have enough time for them and they were miserable. So eventually they made their way to better homes.

It's now been about 9 months, and we are trying again. Wally-sly is a 4-year old tabby, and morbidly obese. I mean I have never seen a cat so fat. He seems to be pretty mild-mannered though, he just walks around and looks at stuff. He already has a fascination with the bathroom cabinets. I'm sure he'll get more comfortable with time. (He's already potty trained too, yay!!)

As for the allergies - I am hoping that after being around him enough, my body will get used to him. Surprise surprise but Geoff is slightly allergic too. He had a cat growing up and didn't react to her, so maybe that is a sign that we can get used to Wally.