But you’re still not our favorite

So its pretty horrible not having a dog. We’re left with two cats that we’re endeavoring to love but we realized, this week, that this has always been our attitude towards these cats:

Now that we’ve seen the reality of our sin we’re trying to be nice to the cats, particularly Matt (they always come to me for milk at the very list and occasionally let me pet them), but its uphill going. Basically Elphine’s cat, Frances, only likes her and Gladys. Gladys is allowed, by the cat, to drag her (the cat) around the house and pull her tail and sit on her without any repercussions. But if I happen to lightly pet her head at the wrong moment I get bit. And of course Bander, the miracle cat, is a neurotic mess. Actually he’s been wandering around the house crying since Tuesday. It dawned on me in the middle of the night as I lay listening to him howl and cursing him silently, that perhaps he misses Maggie.

And why not. Maggie was a solid matronly glue that kept us all sane. Plus she ate all the food all the children drop on the floor at every meal. So I’m trying to manipulate Matt in every way I can think of to let us have another dog. I’m open to suggestions because, in spite of what he thinks, not everything I do is designed gain some predetermined result.