A Kitten Named Frank

Tonight we ended our Labor Day weekend with a barbeque at the Van Gorps. Liz Van Gorp is the violinist in the Amy Steenoek & Rising Son band of which Adam is the bassist, and the Van Gorp family invited us over for the afternoon/evening.

The Van Gorps live on a farm and have quite the assortment of animals. Julia, not being around animals too very often, LOVES them... until they get a little too close. Even with cats... while she LOVES cats... she is 'better' with them if she is allowed to approach them instead of them approaching her.

But... Liz and fam had BABY cats... kittens, if you will. We checked out the kittens early in the evening, but Julia, while interested in the kittens, was all about checking out the farm in general. She enjoyed some time on the trampoline with Adam, met horses (on the second time she's ever been "up close" with horses), and even allowed a dog or two to sniff her out.

But, after dinner, Julia decided that the cats were where it was at, and she toddled over to the steps to play with the cats. After petting a few of them and meowing at them enthusiastically, we noticed that our child... JULIA... was PICKING UP THE KITTENS! And not just picking them up... she was carrying them around and putting them in her lap.

Julia's favorite kitten was Frank. He is a mostly-white (with black) fluffy little bugger, and she L.O.V.E.D. him. LOVED. And Frank allowed Julia to do pretty much whatever she wanted (even allowing her to pick him up BY THE FUR at one point). It was cute and fun to watch Julia with Frank... until Frank had enough. Thus the meltdown began. We tried to pacify Julia with other cats/kittens, but it wasn't good enough... she needed Frank.

We finally decided to leave after some wailing and whining and begging for "Mama" (read: Adam), and on the way out, Liz had found Frank again. We tried to get Julia to say good bye to Frank, but it seemed Julia really thought Frank needed to come home with us. She had Frank around the neck and was trying to carry him to our car. Finally Adam and Liz decided that Adam would take Julia and Liz would take the cat... and our poor little gal cried the entire way home.

I kindly asked Liz's mom, Sue, to please not leave Frank on our front door with a red ribbon around his neck. She laughed and said she wouldn't. As much as I THINK I would like a cat... and as much Julia LOVES cats... the little bit of playing with the cat that Adam did tonight had him completely wheezy on the way home (whoops... Adam is allergic to cats) and come on, who really wants white cat fur all over their carpet and furniture... especially when a new baby is about to make an appearance?

(So please, please don't ever get us a cat...!!!)

However, we did manage to snap a few pictures of Julia with Frank... though, I might wait a few days before showing them to her. And, we were invited back to the farm to visit Frank and maybe someday to even ride the horse. ;)







erin