The week of Mother’s Day, Mark and I started looking at cats at a local cat rescue place.  I can’t pinpoint exactly what spurred it.  Maybe watching Liam and Josiah so enamored by the kittens at the farm.  Or the adorable fluffiness and meowing that we haven’t seen or heard for over five years.  Or Emmie’s shrills of joys whenever she is around any animal…cats, dogs, fish.  Or maybe we just completely lost it.

For whatever reason, I found myself sending a message to the cat rescue place.  We knew we couldn’t just go for the cutest cat ever.  We knew kittens were a no go with a dog that is in to everything and kids that want to love, hug, cuddle, and carry.  We needed a cat that could tolerate little people and be tough enough to withstand their love.  And fast.  To get away from the crazy dog.

The cat rescue place was awesome and found just what we were looking for.  They sent me two suggestions and we gladly headed over to our pet store to check them out.  We went straight to this one cat and Emmie instantly lit up and squealed with delight.  I picked him up and he cuddled next to me.  He cuddled next to Mark and he never once tried to climb down.  He patiently waited on each of the kids to pet him.  It was pretty obvious to us that he was ready for the challenge of our bunch.

And so, meet Frodo.

His name before he became ours was Tucker but everyone agreed he needed a new name.  After trying fifty or so.  Frodo stuck.  Personally, I wanted Radagast since he is brown but that was vetoed by all.  Including him.

This cat was seriously meant to be in our family.  The second day he was home, he jumped in to my lap while I was nursing Emmie.  Emmie reached over and rubbed his fur, pulled his ears and held on to his fur.  He just sat there.  After he was done getting his “cuddles,” he jumped down and trotted on his merry way.

He helps me with school.

And when he gets wet we just throw him in the dryer (totally kidding…he jumped in there in between clothes swap.  I made sure he was out before we started it).

And he totally ignores the crazy dog.  Ginger, our dog, goes between wanting to eat and wanting to play with him.  He would prefer to just sleep.  As for Sunny, our grumpy ol’ lady dog, she is nonchalant about the new addition.