Promise not to laugh?

This story is not funny. It's horrible and traumatizing and you should feel bad for me.

My husband has this cat that he loves and thinks she's so cute. She's not. Her name is Persephone. She thinks she's a panther. We got her as a kitten and she was happy to be an inside cat until last year when she decided to travel the world and find herself. She would sneak out the door when we let the dogs out, and when we stopped her, she would barrel through our window screens- breaking them on the way out. We finally gave up and let her come and go as she pleases now.

She's a little biger now, but still fopols people with that angel face

This summer, Persephone has invested her time in hunting for sport. We don't have any rodents for her to hunt at our home, so she goes to the end of our street where there are little league fields surrounded by woods. She brings home rabbits, birds, and mice expecting a round of applause and room on the mantel to display her work.

I have had pet mice. Furry little balls of mice-y cuteness that I am in no way afraid of. The mice Persephone brings home are not like pet store mice. they are HUGE and TERRIFYING and DEAD. Seriously, the stuff nightmares are made of. My skin is crawling just writing this.


Baby 4's caseworker came over for her bi-monthly visit last week. We spent some time talking about 4's respite weekend that started that Friday- which he wass super excited about. Then we talked about the fight that broke out at the last visitation- which I will blog about later. Finally 4 said, "Do you want to come see my rocket?", and we headed outside.

We are outside literally 20 seconds, when I see panther-cat in the corner of our back yard with a giant mouse. I immediately start internally chanting, "Don't look over there, Don't look over there"- thinking that the caseworker might be so enthralled with 4's rocket launching abilities that she wouldn't notice our little rodent friend. She probably wouldn't have noticed, but Baby 4 started pointing and screaming, "Persephone has a rat!! Caseworker, Come look at the rat!!!"

AND she obliged

AND Baby 4 told her about the last one we found in the yard that had bugs on it

AND he told her that Mommy is afraid of rats and so she left it in the yard until Daddy got home.

AND I was mortified

AND we look like dirty people with a mouse infestation

I want to send her a follow up email:

Dear Caseworker,

We really don't have a rodent problem. We have a wild cat problem. I will immediately give her away on Craigslist.

Love, Teresa