I Bet You Didn't Know...

...that Friday was Hug Your Cat Day.

My calendar from Oriental Trading Co. marks all the absurd "holidays". When #3 saw that cats had a day, she made sure Brownie felt special.

Brownie is our outdoor cat. She/he (I've never looked closely enough to know) adopted our family a few years ago. Brownie loves attention and will put up with all sorts of abuse--I mean "affection"--from my kids. Sometimes she/he even pretends to want to hunt mice. The pouncing pose usually turns to disinterest though, which then just leads to a cat nap.

#3 decided Brownie needed a day's respite from napping in the shade of our blue spruce on a gorgeous June afternoon, and so made up accommodations in her younger siblings' bedroom. She made a bed in the cat carrier and set a flimsy cardboard box filled with kitty litter nearby. Then she got to work convincing the cat to come inside. Brownie will sometimes take a few steps into the house when he/she can hear us scooping food. However, if the door ever gets closed behind him/her, we have a very nervous cat on our hands.

When I overheard #3 whisper to #5 that she had "finally caught the cat" and it was now trapped in his room, I had to interject.

With what turned out to be a prophetic statement, I said to #3, "If that cat poops on the carpet, you'll get to clean it up."

She did.

And Brownie was soon returned to the great outdoors.