**Annoying Ads

I have been particlarly annoyed by certain radio commercials lately. I am in my car many hours of the day and spend every second listening to the radio (except when I'm on my cell phone - for which I use a bluetooth, don't fret). I spend the first hour listening to 680 news. Once those stories start repeating, I switch to music stations and flip between them for the remainder of the day.

Why in the world would anyone want a commercial that says "If you have a wallet with something in it, we want you at Kooy Brothers". How much more rude can you get?! They may as well say "we don't really care if you are happy with our service or products. We just want your money".

What about the Toronto Blue Jays commercials? They're trying to say that specific players were born to play the game. There's a little voice singing the ABC's, only he sings them "A-B-C-D-E-R-A". Ha ha. E.R.A. Very funny. Not.

These companies pay people a lot of money to come up with these ideas - not only that, but they pay a lot of money to get these commercials on the radio! Why waste everyone's time and money on crap like that? Every time one comes on when I'm tuned in, I certainly feel like that was 30 seconds of my life that I will never get back.

**Kitty Trauma

Okay, so here's a story I didn't share with almost anyone. Back in October, after thinking about getting a kitten for many months, I found a lady on CraigsList who lives in Markham giving away 5 week old kittens for free. We hummed and hawed but decided to go see her, and ultimately brought her home. It was a Sunday. When we first brought her home she hid under the couch for hours. We had an idea to bring her into a room that had no place to hide so that she could get to know us. In my daughter's room, the kids played with her with pieces of string, they scratched her and snuggled with her for about an hour and a half. Then my son had what I thought was an asthma attack. He was trapped in that room with all of little Keisha's (the kid's named her) allergens and he started to cough and wheeze. He hadn't done that in years. His asthma was pretty much gone.

Hubby and I escaped from the kids and the cat and decided (with much drama and hesitation) that we had to give her back right away. Even her spending one night here would make it even harder for the kids to let go. We called the owner and she completely understood and told us to bring her back. The moment I walked into that room to tell the kids that Keisha had to go back was probably one of the worst family moments I can remember. Both kids collapsed in tears. My daughter sobbed into her hands and my son cried "No! No!" repeatedly.

I told them a white lie. I said that **I** was allergic to Keisha. I didn't want my son to feel responsible. I wasn't thinking clearly at the time, and most of it is a fog, but I am glad that I made that decision. I didn't want to make my daughter resent him, and I didn't want him to feel worse about the situation then he already did. I explained that as much as we love her already, after only a few hours, it is much more important to have a healthy Mommy. I explained that if we kept her, Mommy would have a sore throat and cough every single day, and that would make me tired and grumpy and no one would want that. They agreed, but still cried - for what felt like hours.

My husband drove Keisha back to her owner and handed her back to the amazingly understanding woman while I stayed home trying to comfort the kids.

The next day, my son came down with a terrible cough and cold. It lasted weeks and my daughter got it too. It made me feel that maybe we jumped the gun. Perhaps we returned Keisha too soon and it was just this terrible virus coming on. I made an appointment with an allergist. He tested NEGATIVE for a cat allergy. The allergist told us that all cats have different dander, and he could be allergic to one and not another. He suggested (and explained how to) do a home allergy skin test with dander from my mom's cat. We did it. NEGATIVE.

Keisha has since found a good home (the day after we returned her), and Keisha's mommy has given birth to a new litter of four kitties. Now a new dilemma arises. Do we do it again? If we do it again, we have to be sure that we are adopting this kitten for life. I won't put them through this again. Part of me tells me to leave well enough alone, and the other part of me says that they would really benefit from a kitten so much, and we have made pretty sure that it wasn't an allergy, so why not? It would make them (and me) so happy, and it will mend the wounds of Keisha (who they still talk about regularly).

I am bad at making big decisions - extremely bad. The owner of the kittens has agreed to let us visit them about a week before they're ready to go home and spend an hour or so amongst their dander and saliva - even having them lick my son - to ensure there is no reaction. He has never reacted to a cat before...ugh. I HATE making tough decisions!!! I keep thinking what if.....

(The picture above is of our Keisha. She was ours for a whole 6 hours.)