Amy Lu's View

As we start week three of completely WFH, all my co-workers know about StanLee. They’ve seen StanLee during meetings, they’ve HEARD StanLee during meetings, and they may have seen me turn my video on and off as I wander through the house and into the yard looking for StanLee.

Everyone who’s attended our church services and our church lunch hours via Zoom has seen StanLee.

But not everyone may know that we have cats. They are a mother/daughter pair we’ve had about six and a half years: Pepper (Mama Kitty–what an original nickname!) and Sprout (Boo–nickname started as Kitty Boo Boo and got shortened). So I want to take a little blog time to make sure our cats get some of the virtual love and attention they deserve.

Virtual drum roll….here are our adorable cats! (Sprout is the white and orange one, so obviously Pepper is the tiger cat).

And I need a post that is relatively quick and easy-to-write so I can try to stay on blogging schedule. To misquote Willow from The Buffy The Vampire Slayer musical episode, “I think this post’s mostly filler.”

I am also going to get a little confessional, and a little defensive. The main reason that the cats don’t get as much airtime is because they live exclusively in our basement. Ever since we got StanLee in November 2018, we have had a completely segregated cat and dog household.

No, they have never “gotten use” to each other. And yes we have tried this. And we have tried that. And I’m pretty sure we have tried every helpful suggestion we have received from well-meaning folks.

StanLee just really, really, really wants to love the cats. And by “love” he means wrestle them, and roll them, and bark at them, and hug them and squeeze them and call them George.

So the cats live in the basement, and only maybe come upstairs at night when StanLee is sequestered in our bedroom, lounging in our bed (we occasionally see that Pepper has attacked English muffins that I’ve left out). They also sometimes come upstairs when StanLee is at puppy daycare on Thursdays. Sprout even got into the sunroom this last Thursday. They definitely support puppy daycare’s classification as an essential service.

And it’s a really nice basement! And we spend (at least some) StanLee-free time without them.

Here is Sprout on a puppy daycare day helping me WFH, and the saddest picture ever of Pepper at the baby gate designed to keep StanLee from terrorizing them in the basement.

So the cats live in the basement, and only maybe come upstairs at night when StanLee is sequestered in our bedroom, lounging in our bed (we occassionally see that Pepper has attacked English muffins that I’ve left out). They also sometimes come upstairs when StanLee is at puppy daycare on Thursdays. Sprout even got into the sunroom this last Thursday. They definitely support puppy daycare’s classification as an essential service.

But it’s a really nice basement! And we spend (at least some) StanLee-free time without them.

We’re still trying to teach StanLee how to be a good puppy brother. Chad is still training with StanLee on his impulse control, and of course, we’re hoping for him to mellow with age (StanLee that it, not Chad).

And if the cats and StanLee do ever learn to live in harmony, it could be adorable. Ironically, Sprout and Pepper wanted to love our now dear deceased dogs but that was a failure. Oscar was just too old. In fact, Sprout even knocked him over once by body-slamming him. At best, Olive tolerated them, but definitely wanted them to practice social distancing. The cats didn’t get the hint. There were even times we were worried they might be trying to commit suicide by dog when they got in her personal space.

We used to say that the cats deserved a pushy dog, but they have now paid their karmic debt and then some.