Dad in the Doghouse?

So, one unseasonably warm October day, Mom and Son are exiting the supermarket. A little girl sits outside the door holding a limp kitten. She locks eyes with Mom. "Would you give this kitten a home? My mom won't let me keep her." The kitten looks barely alive. She's panting, and her tongue is hanging out. The little girl goes on to tell how she found the kitten in a pile of discarded tires. Her eyes plead with Mom. Mom looks at Son. Son just says, "Please, Mom." Mom is toast.

Mom and son get in the car with the kitten. The kitten feebly licks water from the cap of a bottle of water. By bedtime, however, the kitten is looking and acting better.

A couple of months go by, and Dad volunteers as to how it would be a good idea to get the kitten spayed. Mom says it's too early. Dad brings up the subject a couple of months later, and Mom agrees that yes, it would be good to get the new cat spayed.

Mom foolishly assumes that Dad will actually follow up on his offer to take the kitten to the vet. Dad, however, procrastinates.

Some time goes by, and the "kitten" begins to look, er, wider. Soon, there is no mistaking that the little girl cat is going to be a mother.

Mom gives Dad some "uh huh" looks. Dad doesn't like getting those "uh huh" looks. Dad, after all, is a quite sensitive new millennium sort of fellow, and thus is subject to persistent emotional trauma when faced with the mere notion that Mom might be disappointed in his actions or lack thereof. Dad also wishes that if Mom must express her disapproval, that she avoid doing so while he is trying to watch Ultimate Fighting.

Dad is in the doghouse for a while, but when five new kittens are born, the "uh huh" looks cease as Mom gets her heart reeled in by scenes such as these:



Dad is no longer in the doghouse. However, Dad worries about whether he can convince Mom and Son to keep just one of the kittens. Mom and Son seem to have their hearts set on keeping all five. Dad never patronized cat houses as a single man, and yet now he faces living in one.

Wish Dad luck.