Cat Sitting

Last week, Keith and I had a four-legged house guest....his name is Tyler. Tyler is a cat that has an interesting past with our family. It all started in September of 2003 when a co-worker of mine at the time, found him on the side of the road. She knew how much I loved cats so she asked me if I could take him in. At that time, I was living with my parents (who weren't ever very big fans of cats) and I was pretty sure that they would not agree that he could come live with us. Fortunately, I was wrong and they agreed. I brought him home and he lived with my parents and me for 2 years. Here is a picture of him a few days after I brought him home. He was only about 2 months old at the time.


In August of 2005, Keith and I decided to move in together and unfortunately for me (and Tyler), Keith is allergic to cats, so I couldn't take him with me. Thankfully, my parents had fallen in love with him and were happy to keep him at their house.

So, that's where the story ends, right? Well....no. Less than a year later, my parents told me that Tyler was going to have to move out. It appeared that their dog, Shadow (who got along great with Tyler and even treated him like his baby at times), was urinating on their new carpet near the litter box! My mom said that no matter where she moved the litter box to, Shadow would pee next to it. We all figured that he was probably "marking his territory" but it was determined that one of them had to go and since Shadow was "their" dog and was in the house first, it would need to be Tyler. We were all very upset about it and I was concerned that he was going to have to leave our family.

Thankfully, my sister Katie and her husband Shaun stepped up and said that they would take Tyler in at their house. It was awesome of them to take him on, especially since Katie is not really a "pet person". I do believe, however, that she and Tyler now (almost 3 years later) have a love/hate relationship. And, of course, Pierce is in love with Tyler and they get along like brothers!

So, back to last week...while my parents and sisters & their families were on vacation at the beach, Keith and I agreed to watch Tyler for the week. I didn't need any convincing but Keith did - mostly because of his allergies. I certainly didn't want him to be miserable (his nose gets all stuffed up, his eyes water and he starts itching when he is around animals for a prolonged period of time). He did agree, however, to try to have Tyler at the house and see what happens.

I tried hard to vaccum and keep the house clean on a daily basis so Tyler's hair and dander wouldn't be around the house too much. Also, we did not let him into our bedroom, which kept his hair off of the bed. He didn't like not being able to get into that particular bedroom (even though he had free reign of the rest of the house) and he often sat outside the door and meowed loudly.

It ended up being a great week and Keith didn't have any bad adverse reactions to Tyler. I belive that they even spent more time together than Tyler and I did. Here are a few pictures I snapped of the two of them and of Tyler "hanging out" at our house:

Tyler loved sitting on Keith's lap, especially when Keith was using the computer
Is he sleeping or helping Keith move the mouse?
He loved this spot under our coffee table laying on this serving tray.
Here he is standing outside our bedroom....this was a popular spot for him. He even snuck in a few times when we weren't fast enough with closing the door upon our exit or entrance.