The Care and Feeding of Boys and Other Animals

Our trip home to Italy went very well, travel-wise, and over the past few days we have been settling in to our old routines. Jetlag is a drag, as anyone who has traveled from the US to Europe can tell you. You're exhausted all day, but you can't sleep all night! Confusion! But each day things get a little easier.

The first to greet us upon our return were our 3 dogs, 1 rabbit and 1 hamster. We had 7 cats, too, but the feline population has thinned out around here. We gave away 3 kittens the day before we left, which still left us with 4 cats, but 2 seem to have moved over to the neighbors' house leaving us with just 2.

The first thing my sons wanted to do after greeting their four-legged friends, was to invite human friends over to play. They hadn't seen them for 3 whole weeks! And since I always say yes to having friends over, the house is full of 4, 5, 6 or more boys every day.

The thing about all these creatures, both human and non, is that they are all always hungry! Gone are the days of those little boys who picked at their food, or settled for an ice-cream cone for dinner. Seems like all I do is non-stop food and beverage service all day!

And that leads to a lot of dirty plates and glasses. However, the good news is that my sister-in-law is redoing her kitchen and has passed her nearly-new dishwasher our way. I have been the dishwasher in this house since our last mechanical one broke down and died three years ago. I haven't wanted to buy a new machine because of the expense, and the handwashing didn't really bother me. But now that I have this baby, I'm thrilled. What was I thinking of, handwashing for all those years? Never thought an appliance could make me so happy!