Vacation

July 28, 2009

Vacation day #2

On my to do list for this week to begin and maintain a journal that I am committed to regardless of the peaks and troughs that time allows. In preparation I have been especially interested in reading entries deposited in varies places, notebooks, napkins, etc. earlier that communicate the mundane daily events and hope to stick to that recipe. The actual accounting of time provides for memory maintenance and proper placing of things. Otherwise, I have always thought or debated what the goal of an exercise like this should be and having not too many important things to say I will stick to the mundane time keeping with respect to personal matters. Furthermore, I don't have a particular audience that I am shooting for so I will pick one and who better to write to or about than the particular growth and development of William Van Namen-chief cat annoyance officer.

This is perhaps too harsh a title, although Marian wouldn't disagree, the better question posed would be how do you expect a 4 year old to react to a mother and 5 kittens especially having been without Roger, our last feline friend, when he was 2. It is a situation that is constantly testing our resolve and his listening skills with really no sign of ending these daily altercations.

Today's while no one was looking he put the cat in the washing machine! Quite a task considering he had to move his step stool into place and open the top of the machine assuming it wasn't premeditated and he did not open them in advance. Of course, he comes right out of the laundry room chuckling to himself and tells us what he has done. I won't bother to communicate here all the variations on the conversation that follows except to say that he is Marian's son especially in those moments.

I confess to still having mixed emotions about Elizabeth Haley Delilah Bennet, yes that is her real name. I mean how much can you really love a cat that showed up at your workplace pregnant on a Thursday and has six kittens the next Tuesday. Marian, unable to let her curiosity at never having had kittens, motherly instincts and general love for animals go to waste was happy to charge the $200 fee for a cat she knew at that point for a grand total of 10 minutes. It has been all down hill from there for me and the gift that keeps on giving for the vet. An absess, special feedings, excess medicines you name it i've sighed and paid for it.

All this being said I was intrigued at the experiment knowing that Will would love it and watching Marian would remind me what a special person she is. Which brings us back to her name. Assuming Will would be quick on the draw like he always is with his stuffed animals--Barry the Bear, Mikey the Monkey, Hound the dog and Roger and Luigi our previous two real cats. But he was stumped, knowing that she was female I think he was hoping to score some points with the lady's at school and name them after one of his favourites Senaa, Haley or Erica- his teacher. 

Finally settling for Haley we went with that for a while except both marian and I were lacking input. Marian's love of English romances and Biblical women went with Delilah while myself slightly infatuated with Keira Knightley in her role in Pride and Prejudice opted for Elizabeth Bennett. So Elizabeth Haley Delilah Bennet she is. A suitably outrageous name for a similarly mad moment in time.

This whole experience has been a nightmare really but now with a little over two weeks left till they can be re-homed I sit here and admire them all clumped together asleep or licking each other laying on my favorite chair while mommy rests comfortably on the ottoman I so desperately want to put my feet up on. They look at me from time to time in between lazy stretches, yawn and never know anything about it. What bliss.