Good morning sunshine! Here is my breakfast.

One morning this week I awoke to the sound of Jason moaning and groaning in disgust and despair. He and Lola had been enjoying their morning routine--she sits on his chest and puts her face in his face and he lies there still half asleep and ignores her. Well, she was enjoying it--he was sleeping. That morning she didn't take well to being ignored, so she proceeded to deposit the contents of her stomach all over his shoulder. Yes, Little Miss Puke Alarm Clock got him out of bed in record time, stomping and muttering obscenities all the way to the bathroom to wipe the slimy, gooey chunks of half-digested cat food off of his neck.

Call me a bad wife, but I wish I had been fully awake so as to better appreciate the humor of this event!

Another amusing Lola puke story: once she was sleeping on the top perch of one of our cat trees, pictured at right. She woke up, leaned her head over the edge, and in one giant pile puked out all of the dry food she had just eaten. It was barely wet and not at all digested, almost as if she'd been holding it in her mouth, waiting for a chance to spit it out. Stomach emptied, she curled up and went back to sleep without so much as blinking an eye.

My latest project is a sleek Excel spreadsheet of cat costs. It's super-fancy with stand-out headings for each different subtotalled section and a grand total section that I spent forever on just getting the subtotals to add together properly. I know, I'm so high-tech. I started it because I was curious to know just how much we spend on Jacob, Jasper and Lola. We don't have to worry much about our budget, but I wanted to know exactly how much of it was going toward the felines of the family.

So far this year, we've doled out just more than $2000. We've spent nearly $650 on food, toys, and other supplies--and that's not counting the boxes of litter I sometimes pick up on grocery runs. I'll have to start keeping those receipts to log boxes of Swheat Scoop (we buy expensive litter--no clumping clay crap for my kitties). $375 went for kitty health insurance after Jasper's claw debacle--not applicable to his treatment for that, but we thought it would be prudent in case of any other emergencies. We've spent about $950 on vet care--$830 of that was just on Jasper. That vet bills number will grow, too, because Lola will need an annual physical and vaccinations in the fall, and we need to take Jasper back in for some blood tests as he might be diabetic. And, of course, we spent a mint to have Lola checked out, tested for diseases, spayed, and microchipped last year, which I'm not counting because this is only for 2008. There's also the $10/month "pet rent" tacked on to our regular rent (I always say that apartment companies should charge "child rent"--those little bastards are far more destructive than our cats).

Bottom line, cats are expensive! I'm all for people going to the local shelter and giving a kitty companion a new lease on life, but only if they can afford it--and many people, I'm sorry to say, cannot. Companion animals may not be as expensive as kids, but they should be regarded as just as much of an emotional and financial commitment.

Stepping off my soapbox... This is what our mornings are like--except we have three cats and way more toys scattered all over the floor: