{tugger...}

Okay, so the story starts like this…

First there was a girl (me!).
Girl moved to Ottawa to go to University.
Girl decided to adopt a Cat to keep her company in the big city.
Five years later, Girl also adopted a super cute Boyfriend.
It seemed that Cat and Boyfriend didn’t appear to get along very well.
Cat would spend countless nocturnal hours strategically pouncing on Boyfriend’s groin.
(Did I mention that Cat was 26lbs.?!?!).
Boyfriend would attempt to terrorize Cat with spray bottle.
(Did I also mention that Cat had a very unusual affinity for water?!?!).
Cat chewed a hole through said spray bottle when Boyfriend accidently left it on night table.
Cat : 1 – Boyfriend : 0
A year goes by.
Domestic tensions increase between Cat and Boyfriend.
Things get ugly.
A litre of chocolate milk becomes an innocent bystander.
Girl gets fed up.
Someone’s got to go.
Cat gets one way plane ticket to B.C.
Boyfriend can stay.
Boyfriend is a better cook!

Now fast forward four years! Boyfriend becomes husband (he’s just that good in the kitchen!!) and Cat is still happily chasing eagles in B.C. All was well on the home front!! But I’m not going to lie…I missed having pets around the house, even if they were 26lbs pounds of insanity that may or may not have needed psychological intervention at some point in time!

I’ve always grown up with pets around the house and I truly believe that they add a certain magic to a family that can’t be attained any other way. My husband, on the other hand, grew up in the country where animals had a purpose and never, ever slept on the bed! Trying to convince my husband to get a pet that would become an actual member of the family was one of the bigger challenges in our marriage! But after four years of living feline free, my husband promised me that when we bought a house, we could get adopt a kitten and once again hear the pitter patter of little paws. He did have one condition…they couldn’t sleep on the bed!!!!

So ten weeks after having moved into our new house and a mere ten hours after returning from our month long trip to Australia, Steve and I roamed the halls of our local humane society looking for the perfect furry friend to bring into our home. Sure enough, mere minutes into our search, there he was…all quiet and sad looking in the back of his cage. His name was Mouse – a completely ridiculous name for a cat if you ask me – three months old and had been at the humane society for six weeks already after having been found abandoned on the street. The staff said no one wanted him because he was so much bigger than the other kittens. “Nonsense” we said…wrap him up!

And just like that…two became three! We strongly believed that our first job as “kitty parents” was to spare our newest addition the agony of having to endure a life with the name Mouse. Really…all the other cats would tease him!! But we didn’t want to completely disregard his early days in the big bad world, so we agreed on naming him Tugger Mouse Smyth…an honourable compromise for a street kitty, we thought!

Not wanting him to be too overwhelmed with the transition from cage to three story house, we kept him within the boundaries of our bedroom for the first couple of days. The little guy stayed hovered around our ankles for every breathing moment that we were in that room and imagine what happened when it came time to turn the lights out?!?! You guessed it…as soon as Tugger let out one pathetic little cry, Steve’s one little kitty condition when right out the window!! He was soon curled up on our pillows, right between our heads and proceeded to purr the night away. Literally. For six hours straight. Even after our thirty-seven hour trip home from Australia, neither one of us managed to sleep a wink that night! “Welcome to parenthood” we were told!!

Not surprisingly, Tugger has slept on our bed every single night since; waking me up with the same gentle (and sometimes not so gentle) head butts when the alarm goes off in the morning and receiving the same scratch behind the ear from Steve as he attempts to make the bed each day. And so it goes with the fur ball we love so much!

Tugger knows that his world is about to be rocked! He knows that he won’t be the only child for much longer! He’ll sit on my lap, with his head perched on my belly and give me a look of complete disgust regarding the situation at hand! “Come on…you know we’d be better off just the three of us” he’d say…if he were only given the chance!!

No doubt about it, Tugger really is one of our first great loves as a couple! It’s easy to say that our family is about to begin with the birth of our son but truth be told, our family began the moment we brought that little three pound ball of fur into our home! With every one of his little adventures – from creating a hammock out of my in-laws box spring to swallowing a Christmas ribbon – Tugger has taught us the art of patience, flexibility and how to tie a Christmas tree to the wall…all qualities that I’m sure our son will thank us for later!

So my little Tugboat, please rest assured…you may not be our only child for much longer…but you will forever be our first child! And we wouldn’t have it any other way!!