Cats...well Bookie.

So...I have often come to the realization that we have too many cats. However the problem comes in when looking at them I am unable to look at any one cat and say "YOU! That's it! You have to go!" They each hold their own special place in my heart. This evening, however, I easily could have looked at "Bookie" (our crack kitty) and said, "It's you that has to go!" Bookie came to us...OMG like 5 years ago, almost 5 and a half years ago...via a "friend" who at the time was a recovering alcohol and drug addict. She was renting a room at her friend's house and had her 2 cats there...locked in her room...where she would not return for days on end...god only knows if they had enough food or water or clean litter box. Anyway, the cats were kicked out of her friend's house for escaping and reeking havoc on her house. Our "friend" asked us if Amy and I would take care of the cats for "a couple of weeks" while she got a new apartment. Needless to say a couple of weeks has turned into 5 plus years and our "friend" has fallen off the face of the earth...never to be heard from again. One of Bookie's bad habits when he first moved in was his incessant need to find liquid. You would have to watch your drink like a hawk because he would seek it out in order to tip it over and drink from the puddle. It seemed like it took us years to break him of this. We used to laugh and joke about how thirsty he always was...this of course was due to him being left to fend for himself for days on end in a bedroom without food, water, and affection. Recently Bookie has reverted to his old ways of tipping over glasses when you aren't looking in order to lap up whatever was inside. Tonight was one of these such times and I was ready to set him out on the front porch with a sign around his neck saying, "Free very affectionate cat to a good home." or "Looking for a new owner...I am too thirsty for my old one." or "Very smart, affectionate, thirsty, fat, and cute kitty seeking a new owners to put up with all my antics." I do love him and I as I began to type this entry he sat up on the arm of the big chair and stared into my soul and gave me a look of seduction while purring so loud that it sounds like he's purring into a tin can and I know I cannot give him away...no matter how thirsty he is.