How I decided to get a cat

I am a dog person. I see a dog walking by and I greet him or her. I encourage them to come to me for a pet. I remark at how cute or pretty they are. I'm not sure what to do with a cat except leave it alone and admire it from a distance or allow it to brush against my leg (on its terms!) So imagine my surprise (and Andy's) when I said that I wanted to get a cat last week. I even went so far as to look up shelter where we could adopt one.

So why the heck would I say 'let's get a cat'? Well, it's very simple. Last week, Andy and I stumbled out of bed to find a tiny little mouse dying in our hallway. Egads! I have never seen a mouse in my house! Andy scooped up the little guy and took him to the trash outside. Gnarly. Yuck, yuck, yuck. When we got home from work we took the little mouse out of the trash can and walked it to down the street to a park just in case it woke up and wanted to have a run (or to release its spirit?) It just felt more compassionate.

When we moved here we heard that there were mice everywhere and with an old (even refurbished) home there will be cracks and holes and ways for little dying mice to get inside on a cold night. Regardless of how commonplace it may be to see mice, I am not cool with it... so our landlord called the council to come by and take care of it. Unfortunately, they told her there London was experiencing a mouse and rat infestation (words I never want to hear again!) and that it would be a week or so before they could come by. The British local government system is interesting. Everyone has a council. The taxes you pay to the council (and yes, we pay the taxes, not our landlord!) take care of things like trash, recycling, street lights maintenance and cleaning, maybe a few other things. They also entitle you to a discounted pest control service. Luckily our landlord offered to pay the few for the council to come out and take care of it. They come tomorrow and hopefully they find that it was a fluke the little mouse got in the house and they seal the hole where he made his entrance. If not, and they find out that we 'have mice' I am going to become a cat person immediately and try to adopt the most dog-like cat (ie something I can cuddle) I can find.