Since you've been gone...

As you can imagine, in a house with multiple cats, a dog, and birds, going on vacation takes some effort. That's effort on the pet-sitter's part mostly.

A few years ago my friend Juliana watched the crew while I was gone for Christmas. I left her a fairly long note that started with descriptions of the cats

Cats [Brandy (Indian name: Pees-on-carpet), Kittenhead (Little-head-on-big-body), Crow (Sits-on-bird-cage), Guido (Gets-into-everything), and Scooter (Pees-on-everything-that-Brandy-doesn't)]

and ended with

If you happen to notice someone inappropriately urinating (ie, on the carpet or the couch), there's a jug of Nature's Miracle on the drier and I'd really appreciate it if you could just splash some on the spot -- I'll clean up later. Most of the wet areas in the back of the hallway are Nature's Miracle -- don't worry about those.

[BTW, now I remember why I took the carpet out of the hallway. Good times, good times...]

Then I left.

Here are the notes I found when I came back, in very neat penmanship that is second only to my mother's:

Thursday am:

1) Brandy came into the kitchen when I opened the canned food, but she didn't eat any of it this morning.

2) I'm sorry to report that there's been a Cappelini Incident -- when I came in this morning I found that a bag of Angel Hair pasta had been removed from the cupboard (along with a bunch of other things) and a bunch of it had turned into a toy. I figured that the damage was already done, so I left it out for them to continue playing with. (Apparently, it's Good Fun!) Anyway, it'll help keep them from turning their devious little minds to further evil... maybe.

3) Guido is a juvenile delinquent.

Friday am:

1) Brandy didn't eat any of the canned food again this am.

2) Sorry about the kibble & litter messes -- I couldn't find a broom.

3) Guido likes pomegranate.

Amazingly, the house was still standing when I returned.