Oh, don't get me wrong, Margaret, Sparky is not a perfect angel ALL the time. He does still have his "moments" of that wild little teenager guy in him.... but about 90% of the time he's a perfect little angel. He follows his daddy around and meows at him. He sits on the arm of his daddy's chair (or on top of the copier) when his daddy is playing his computer game and he wants to be near him. Otherwise, he's laying on the bed near his daddy - still sleeping on your old bathroom mat. That's "his" bed and "his" spot. He's the one on the counter to be the first to sniff the can of food I open for them to eat.... I guess it's his "job" to check it out first. He's the first one to jump in a window if we open one. And he's the first one out the door when it's time to go outside. The only thing he does that tends to get on the nerves is he "whines" when he meows.... it's not a quick "mrow" like the other kittys..... it's like Mmmmmmrrrrrroooooooowwwwww" He reminds me of Fran Dresher in "The Nanny" when she whined.... but, he's our boy and we love him anyway.

Oh.... and I've mentioned before that Neil claims to "hate animals". Well, the other day he actually TOLD SPARKY that he loves him!!!! It was so cute!! He was in the computer room, petting Sparky and he said, "I love you Sparky". We refer to Sparky as his son because those two certainly are a team. No doubt about that!!!!

Awww, that is so sweet that Neil now loves Sparky and admits it out loud!

That bath mat has seen quite a life! It must be at least 17 years old. More, I think. I guess you need to keep it.

Yes, I think Sparky really likes your bath mat. It's never been washed yet either but it looks as clean as the day you gave it to me. He's the only one who sleeps on it. In fact, it's 4:28 EST a.m. right now and he's curled up on it at this very moment. He's like a perfect little angel.....and the bear you gave him is laying about a foot away from him too. He doesn't play with it but it's "there" should he ever decide he wants it.

Hahahaha..... The reason I was awake (since 3:00 a.m. actually) is because my "dear husband" failed to let the dogs out before he went to bed and they woke me up at 3 a.m. to go out. Once I am up, I cannot go back to sleep again. This is the THIRD time he did this to me this week and the first two times it was when I had to work all day. Today, I had to leave the house by 7:15 a.m. to have my van's front end aligned before my tires go bald. So this week, on top of not feeling well due to severe allergies, I have been quite "sleep deprived".

As for the van - I had a left front ball joint that needed replacing before they could do the alignment - with that repair they let me go with a warning that I would be "lucky" if my front brakes/rotors last me one or two more weeks. The van handles and rides much better with the alignment however the knocking of the front brakes/rotors is very unnerving. I will have to take it to my "regular" mechanic (if one has such a thing) and see if he will fix it and let me make payments on it. (He did that one other time as a last resort - he doesn't make that a habit - but when he took my tire off the entire thing that holds the tire on completely crumbled in front of him. I made about 3 monthly installments then sent him a $400 check in a thank you note to pay off the balance. He and his wife were VERY impressed with that. I might have good luck with it this time as well - I hope.)

The tire place that did the ball joint and alignment today estimates the brake job to be near $200 total at their place. Hopefully Paul (the mechanic that I "normally" go to) will be a bit cheaper. I will stop and discuss this with him on Monday after work at the Fiber Glass place. At this time, my credit card is officially "maxed out" completely. No more credit card......

Margaret,

I'm so glad Jolie's blood counts were normal......and that she is okay. Your cats seem to be doing well on the new foods youve been giving them. I wish mine weren't so picky!

Maria