called in sick today. so i sit here with the babies. daisy jumps up on the bed to be next to her beloved minnie, who instantly jumps off the bed and curls up in his cup. daisy watches him.

can a cat feel rejection? i think i see it in her eyes. she curls up near me. she lets out a groan and gets to work napping. big day ahead for the three of us.

my mother calls to thank me for the scarf i gave to her at Christmas. she’s at the dog park with Teddy. "hang on a sec" she interrupts. I’m so used to this.

"Teddy!" she screeches and i have to hold the phone away from my ear. "Sorry, he's found a dead rat," she tells me. i hear her running, chasing after Teddy. She's a little winded. She's no match for Teddy. Even in her little Puma tennies. he taunts her, runs in circles around her legs.

"Teddy, put the rat down. Teddy!" i have one eardrum left. i move the phone to the other ear.

I wait gazing at my precious kitties. is that cat pee i smell?

I eye Minnie. I walk around the room sniffing in his pee corners of choice, while my mother's frantic, pleading requests to her crazed rat eating dog go unheeded.

“Teddy come here now!” she commands. as if.

I definitely smell pee, somewhere in this room. I sniff the chair where minnie sleeps. my stack of clean clothing on the desk. i sit back down next to Daisy and wait for my mother.

"He's in a tree," she says. "with the rat. I better go."

Cats. That's where it's at. Non of this screeching in the park, tree climbing, varmint chewing stuff for me and Ippoc. No our precious little babies just sit here, cute and soft and fat (daisy)...and I definitely smell cat pee.