Shmoggleberry

I thought my fiancee was not able to love pets. However, I think I was wrong...

Shmoggleberry has had mild diarrhoea on and off since we moved. Since it was mild, and the vet had found nothing wrong with him, I wasn't really concerned (except cleaning it up when he missed the litter box was more irksome than usual). Since he has also discovered the outside world since we moved, I had previously guessed that he was finding something outside to eat that didn't quite agree with him, or that the excitement of the outside world affected his bowels - he always comes back in fully "fluffed".

We also seemed to go through large amounts of milk. I only have it in coffee, as I never have breakfast or drink the stuff otherwise, and Joel swore blind that he didn't drink it either. Odd, but nothing out of the ordinary. Obviously (I thought) we just put more of it in our tea and coffee than we guess.

I think you can see where this is heading, but just so you know, Shmoggleberry wasn't allowed any milk, because he is lactose intolerant. When he had alerted me to the presence of a spider, he got a very small amount as a reward, and when he came back from his forages outside, he got a teensy bit, but not a lot, and not very often.

About two weeks ago, the milk stopped disappearing, and Shmoggleberry's litterbox has been perfectly normal. Not that I associated either of these two things until...

Last night. Something woke me up, I don't know what. I looked out of the bedroom to see what time it was (the alarm clock succumbing to a cup of tea knocked over by Shmoggleberry in one of his "kill the monster under the bed" runs). There was Joel, giving Shmoggleberry a BIG bowl of - get this - special "Whiskas Milk for Cats". He'd hidden it from me in the vegetable bin of the fridge. This stuff costs a fortune, and Joel's been buying out of his own money. I'd never even dream of buying it. Joel must be going out when I'm not home and stashing it somewhere. There was also a can of open tuna in the fridge this morning. I didn't open it. Joel doesn't like fish.

Joel does love my cat, he just doesn't want to admit it. How absolutely cute! This also explains why the cat doesn't get on the bed until about and hour or so after I'm asleep, he's getting his nightly fill of milk from Joel! I'm just so glad everything's worked out, and the Love Spells Shmoggleberry has been weaving on Joel have finally worked. I'm not giving the game away though, as Joel obviously has his reasons for not letting me know. But he can love pets, and that's all that is important for now.

This leaves me with a wonderful warm feeling in my heart. The two "people" I love most in the world now love each other, too.

Copyright © Vicky Chapman
August 8, 1998