What is it about having pets that makes even an apartment seem more like a home? Our "girls", Duchess and Darla, are two year old sisters who have been part of our family since they were 8 weeks old. They do not know they are cats, apparently; they act more like dogs. If one of them is closed in a room, the other will go sit and wait (sometimes impatiently) for one of us to go open the door and let her out. When we go out, we usually return to find them sitting in the window, watching for us, and they meet us at the door. Most cats could not be bothered. They are not allowed outside, unless they are in their carrier. When they were kittens, each of them got outside in the grass for less than 5 minutes, and we fought fleas for the next six weeks. We finally made a trip to PetsMart for flea collars that didn't help much, and to the vet for Advantage, which worked. Then we needed worm pills.

I don't know what we did before we had these girls. They are more fun to watch than television. I wanted two cats because they keep each other company, and they are much more playful longer than single cats usually are. I won't say they are less mischievous, because that isn't the case; Darla, especially, is a curious sort who has to have her nose into everything. She will climb the bathroom door, and sit atop it, looking down on us . . . but she only does this at night. She also likes to try to open cabinet doors, but she can't open the bottom ones because they have child latches inside them. She has learned to open the top cabinets, and has climbed inside them...so we actually taped them shut.

Duchess, on the other hand, is much more laid back. Both of them are affectionate, but they are not "lap cats." They don't have much patience with being held, although Duchess will allow us to cradle her in our arms like a baby sometimes.

I don't think there's anything much nicer than waking up to find two cats sleeping nose-to-nose, at my feet, or curled up between us when it's cold and wet outside. Somehow, it just seems more "homey."