Tale as old as time

I'm talking of course about the tale where I adopt a stray cat. I've been doing this my whole life. Whether 'training' the wild cats that would come in from the field behind our house growing up, or sneaking a stray into my college dorm room, if I meet a helpless, homeless cat, I will take it in until I either get caught (like my junior year in college when the RA came around at 3 AM one night for "bed checks" and was met at our apartment by all kinds of hurried, muffled sounds as we tried to remove the cat and all evidence from the room before opening the door. She was sure we were stashing boys and actually laughed out loud when my roommate finally admitted, guiltily, "We have a cat!") or realize that it's just not going to work out (like my freshman year when I found a cat on campus and brought him home, where he lived quite happily until nighttime when I put him in a big, stereo box and he freaked out and diarrhea-ed over everything.)

This new cat was actually taken in by M, who has the same caring nature toward animals that I do. He found it on Friday night and went out and bought everything cat thing you can think of. Knowing I've been tossing around the idea of getting a cat, he dropped it off with me today, giving me a chance to get to know it, maybe see if I want to keep it. While I love me a kitten, I did not fall in love with this one. Maybe because even after being washed thoroughly, he still has a very 'stray' look, and it kind of grossed me out. Maybe because he's a boy, and black and white, whereas I prefer orange, girl cats. Maybe because I was never really sure when he was going to poop (and where he would be when he did). Mostly because it was exhausting to run around the house making sure he wasn't getting stuck between the oven and the fridge or something. I'm sure those of you with children are thinking that the things I just said mean I will be a very bad mother when the time comes, but in my defense, if I had grown this cat inside of me for nine months, I would gladly clean up his poop.