Long Overdue

As I write the boys are finally being castrated. Fingers crossed that this puts an end to the compulsive pissing and pooing in inappropriate places throughout the house.

Things I will not miss:

• Waking up each morning and embarking on a "treasure hunt" to identify where on earth the smell is coming from.

• Not being able to get a full night's sleep, Version 1: Cats in Bedroom. Waking up every time the cats walk on the mattress, shift position, meow, scratch, or chase each other due to extreme paranoia of being pissed on while I slumber.

• Not being able to get a full night's sleep, Version 2: Cats Out of Bedroom. Having nightmares about people trying to break into the house due to cats slamming against the closed door with all their weight and managing to jimmy open the handle, thus invading the room every 15 minutes and causing me to wake up from said nightmares to shoo the beasts back into the hallway.

• Not being able to get a full night's sleep, Version 3: The Water Bottle. This was our latest solution, and it actually worked semi-well for the past couple of days. Rico had the brilliant idea to fill up a squirt bottle with water and sleep with it next to the bed. We left the door open, and each time the boys started to act up, Rico or I would paw around in the dark for the squirt bottle and let fly with a stream of water onto the offending cat. Although this method did provide for some great entertainment and seemed to thwart most of the "accidents", it alas did not allow for peaceful sleep either.

I'm hoping that the down-time required for the boys to recuperate from the big snip will also break them of their latest habit: they've learned how to open the freezer. The other day Rico and I walked into the kitchen to find the freezer wide open, the tip of Parceiro's tail barely visible curving around the side of the door (we have a reversed fridge/freezer where the congelador is actually the bottom half of the appliance). Not only had the cat managed to nudge open the freezer, Parceiro apparently liked the cool air so much that he decided to get all the way inside and make himself comfortable on top of the ice trays. To ensure we didn't think it was a fluke occurance, Parceiro went ahead and pulled this trick two more times before Rico finally squashed the fun with a lock and key for the freezer door. Now the cats have taken to scrabbling against the plastic siding of the appliance and it's just a matter of time before they bust the lock.

Though the thought of cat hair in my ice totally grosses me out, I can't say I blame the boys. I would have gladly climed into the freezer myself during the blisteringly hot, humid days of late if I'd thought there was a fleeting chance I'd fit in there.

Rico has just left to pick up the boys from the vet. Fingers crossed, my friends. Fingers crossed.