This details the activities of the past two weekends...
In Dad's words:
"There is a funny thing about merchandising things here.
If you need bathroom fixtures, you go to the place in the city where all things toilet come together. There might be forty or fifty shops--each of them carrying the exact same things (likely, right down to the serial numbers).
Well, there is this "pet shopping street."
There was this dog, two weeks ago...a puppy...a dachshund puppy. The girls fell in love. I was the only one who realized that we live on the 8th floor of a 12 floor building.
I said, no.
They were sad, and I soon became sad, eventually wishing that we had a dachshund puppy in our home. I wished for the happy memories I'd have of leashing a whining dachshund pup, walking it to the elevator at midnight...walking out into the winter, steam boiling off of my sleepy head, and waiting for it to circle on a poop spot as my dog-loving family slept and dreamed of puppies and kitties.
We went back to the pet shopping street the next week. I had the incredibly dim lit idea of telling them we would return and get that puppy!
I was a hero for about six hours. Anticipation was high!
I thought that if the pup were gone, I'd be off the hook.
I am an idiot.
As we walked through the pet market, my children were still chanting, "you're awesome, dad--not just because of the puppy we're getting--you're just awesome." As we neared the pup's dealer, we walked faster and faster, and it became sickeningly clear to me that "mr. awesome dad" was going to have to produce.
We looked, and looked.
There wasn't a Dachshund pup to be found anywhere along the 1/4 mile string of shops. Twenty or thirty other breeds--no wiener dogs.
A week passed.
I was now a zero, not a hero.
Cooler head prevailed (Momma), and the grief-stricken children were finally convinced that a kitty was a more appropriate pet for apartment dwellers like ourselves.
So after Meeting last Sunday, we went back--trip #3--and I told Momma that she'd better find a kitten before I found a puppy or........well, I'd be walking it into the cold winter night to poop.
There were two D. pups!
Luckily, there were also some nice looking cats. The kittens were mostly long haired models. But the market had several shorter-haired, more mature cats.
One we asked about was quite expensive, and our Chinese friend found out for us by phone that the cat was apparently "quite famous." We set out to find an undiscovered cat.
We came upon a "cat house" that had about a dozen of them running amok therein. After an hour of test-holding and test-petting and test-lifting and test-stroking and test-teasing each cat, there were three favorites.
The best personality went to a gray longhaired cat that was hypnotized by The Bug. No. 2 was a smash-faced gray with dark gray stripes and spots. It was Magpies's favorite. Momma liked a solid, smokey gray model. Bub, Potato, and Brownie (later christened "the cat whisperer) loved any cat that they could catch.
So we chose the short-haired, 4-month old that Magpie liked.
Momma hesitated just a moment too long over her favorite, so I insisted we get it, too.
I would have gone for a third, but we were out of cash and again, a cooler head prevailed.
I doubt I'll ever say no to a living creature that can't be easily replaced. "
Momma's Pick - "Switch"
Magpie's B-day Gift - "Sweetie Pie"
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