The cats have peed on my sofa again SIGH. Just before my MIL visited.
She's a wonderful woman (in some ways a lot nicer than my own mom), but
she's not a pet person. She asked me (in re. the peed on sofa) when enough
was enough and I would "decide it wasn't worth it." I said something along
the lines of 'If I got rid of the cats because they did inappropriate
things, how much destruction would I let the boys do before I got rid of
them.' She look disturbed, and pointed out to me that my cats *were not*
children.

I know that. My critters are critters, my kids are kids. But...

This is where I'm stuck. I long ago came to the conclusion that there were
two types of people in the world: Animal people and non-Animal People.
Animal People understand some things instinctively; like why you don't ditch
a pet because they are inconvevient. But how do you explain it to someone
who doesn't get it on the instinctive level? If I talk about commitment,
people like my MIL point out how much my life has changed since I got the
cats (they've been with me longer than my hubby), and nobody would "blame"
me if I "admitted" I needed to let them go. If I talk about love, they just
look at me like I'm nuts.

I am an Animal person surrounded by non-animal people. I need to find a way
to communicate with these aliens in my world ;-)

Marie