Those that don't have pets in their home just don't know what they are missing.

Smidgee the red nosed kitty.

It was a cold stormy night just after Halloween of 2004 when we got a knock on our door during a downpour. Carol, a neighbor, was standing there telling us that since we were officially known as "the cat people" on our street she wanted us to know that she could hear the cries of a kitten in the bushes in front of her home. She wasn't a cat lover and didn't know what to do other than tell us, she said. Debbie and I went out into the rain with flashlights in hand and as it poured on us we poked through the bushes on our hands and knees until we had her in hand, no bigger than a fist, shivering, soaking wet, scared and hungry.

After a warm bath, some milk and a good meal we won her over, okay actually, she won us over, and we knew immediately that she would stay with us for good and join the six other rescued cats that we already had. Our original plan was to rescue, nurture, spay and neuter the cats we came across and then find them all good homes, but giving them up after they've become a part of the family is very hard. And then finding them good homes is much harder.

And so Smidgee became part of our family, a family that has now grown to 15 cats, all strays that found us one way or another, hurt, hungry, or just wanting loved by anyone at all.

Turns out that her favorite holiday is also mine, Christmas. It is a time to thank God and let thoughts of the baby Jesus warm our hearts and heal our wounds. Smidgee became the most independent and the most playful of all our cats and she can spend hours chasing that infernal red dot that shows up around here from time to time. Sometimes she can't find what's right under, or on rather, her own nose.

I can't imagine spending a day in our home without the love and fun of our cats. Yes, we're still trying to find them all homes, but I don't think that we're really putting our hearts into it, do you?