Kitty Wars

As anybody who knows me would tell you, I am the crazy cat lady. I love my kitties! I tell my husband that if he was not around I would have a million cats. Unfortunately, he is NOT a cat person. Four years ago I finally convinced him to let me get one cat. I had to specify that it would be a declawed, potty trained cat and it was on a one month probation, if said kitty did anything to offend Gary I promised to take him/her back to the shelter, as long as Gary had given it his best effort. So, Sarah came home that lovely September afternoon, and is now an indispensable part of the family. Gary has grown quite fond of Sarah, even if she will only snuggle with me. Last year at Christmas he saw a lady selling kittens while we were in California and said he almost stopped to buy me one, but decided to wait until we got home. Now, we had just gotten rid of Max, our second cat, a few months before. Unfortunatly Max was old and stopped going potty in the kitty box, which is the most serious kitty offense in Gary's opnion. So Gary mentioning another cat was very suprising to me. But in mid Januaray we went to the shelter and I watched my hubby closely. He picked up a beautiful beige kitten, that immediatly curled up on his chest and looked right at home. I told the lady "That one!" she told me that the kitten was part of a brother/sister pair and they didn't want to seperate them. My heart sank, I was sure Gary would not go for both, but to my suprise he said it was fine!! Abigail and Abraham came home to meet Sarah and we all lived happily ever after....until Patches. When Jacob's mom moved to Utah in August, we not only got to keep him full time, we got to keep the cat he had at his mom's house. At first I thought Patches was going to fit in okay, until she started chasing Sarah. Sarah being the "oldest" cat in the house, she has a special place, you do not mess with Sarah without incuring the rath of Gary. After two months of Patches trying to dominate all the other cats, she got taken to the shelter...but just a little to late. She peed on my bed. Well, Abraham being a male kitty, decided to pee in the same spot....twice! After changing my sheets four times in three days I had finally had enough, I handed Abraham to Gary and told him to get him out of my sight. Which lasted about an hour. I left to run errands and came home to Abraham curled against the front wall of my yard scared to death. He has now spent the last week in my back yard under our deck, Gary refused to allow him back in the house. Yesterday I caved and asked Gary to let him back in. Patches is gone, the house has been throughally cleaned, so no Patches scent anywhere, and we can keep the bedroom doors closed to make sure Abraham remembers where the kitty box is. Gary was adamat about not letting him back in. But this evening, he called the kids into the living room and put it to a vote. Why he would think the kids would vote to keep Abraham exiled is beyond me, and needless to say, he lost 4 to 1. He was a gracious looser, but seemed to take a little to much pleasure in giving Abraham a bath :-)