I grew up with animals around the house and we very seldom had any altercations between the different species we hosted. Yes, we owned them, but with how casual Grandma and Grandpa treated the animals, you really couldn’t call them pets. Or, at least I never felt like we “owned” them.

Sometimes our cats might be gone for several hours or several days. Of course, living more out in the country, things were just a little more catch-as-catch-can, and even the dogs were in and out all the time. The cats often lived in the barn, but Grandpa always wanted to have the dogs in the house, especially at night. During the day, however, the dog doors seemed to always be in use!

Getting Amber and Thomas was kind of nostalgic for me. Nils pointed out that we didn’t live in the country, so keeping them in the house was important. More importantly, I agreed with him. So, Amber and Thomas had to stay inside most of the time.

We took Amber for a walk every day. Since she was so shy to begin with, we wanted to socialize her and the best way to do that was to walk in the neighborhood where she could meet different people. It wasn’t long before she was looking forward to our walks and was actually eager to meet people. Her shyness wasn’t gone, but she was getting better.

Thomas, on the other hand, was very gregarious. Emma came by one day, and Thomas was the first one to the door. Of course, Emma was entranced by Thomas, and he took it as his due that she should fawn all over him, which she did. He was so soft that you just wanted to cuddle him against your cheek (or your breast if you’re like me and Emma).

Since our house is, for the most part, clothing optional, it’s not at all unusual for me to be doing housework in the nude. One day, I was doing the laundry and I found Thomas in the dryer looking so innocent. I picked him up and cuddled him, of course, and he purred loudly. He was against my breast, and that deep-body rumble vibrated against my nipple, working on making it erect. Silly cat was making me horny!

I don’t do it too often, but I noticed that a couple of Nils’ shirts needed some ironing, so I brought the basket of clothes into the spare bedroom, set up the ironing board and got a shirt on it. I looked down, and there was Amber sitting up in the basket on the other clothes looking very pleased with herself. Thomas was wrapping himself around my ankles. It was all very domestic and I felt very contented.

Later, Nils and I were cuddling on the couch with Thomas on Nils’ lap and Amber with her head in mine. It reminded me of a song Grandma liked to play on the stereo:

Our house is a very, very fine house

With two dogs in the yard.

Well, we didn’t have two dogs, but we did have a cat and a dog and it all felt so domestic again. Only, it seemed like something was missing.

When we went to bed, it hit me: what was missing was a baby. We were almost a family, but we didn’t have a young version of ourselves.

I mentioned that to Nils, and he thought about it. “Do you want a baby?” he asked.

I thought about it. Oh, heavens, I’d thought about it off and on ever since Faith told me she was pregnant. Did I want to go through the emotional roller coaster like she did? Did I want my tummy all stretched out like hers? I didn’t know, but I did know that something was missing in our lives.

“I don’t know, Nils,” I said. “Let’s pretend we’re trying, at least.”

And, even with our audience, we practiced!

Story by Jon Eugene
Illustrations by Mat