Tuesdays with Dory: Confession

Those who have been reading this blog for a while may know that I actually have two cats: Dory and Nelly.

Since Dory is the one with her own post, you might suspect that she's my favorite.

But this actually isn't the case.

I don't have a favorite.

The reality is, I picked Dory for 2 reasons:

1) Dory rhymes with Morrie.

2) Nelly has an embarrassing secret.


Well, maybe it's not so embarrassing to her, but it's embarrassing to me.

Nelly has horrific mats on her back that she WILL NOT let me cut out.

Eek!

They look awful. Like she's a feral cat rather than a spoiled pet who spends most of her time lying on one of THREE blankets we now have established for her use.

Nelly's a big girl. Forcing her to do anything is a challenge, and even with 2 adults in the house, holding her down and cutting out the mats is nearly impossible.

(Especially if one of the 2 adults might be crying and apologizing to the cat while attempting to saw through the layers of dandruff and matted fur.)

Occasionally I try to sneak up on her and snip off a loose one while she's sleeping.

Sometimes this works, but more often than not, she's wise to the situation.

So the mats remain.

And I don't share photos of her because she makes me look like a bad cat mom.

But the truth is, Nelly is my little sweetheart.

Unlike Dory, who actually is just about as grumpy as I portray her to be (though not without her charms!), Nelly is chatty, friendly girl. She's not a big snuggler, though she does occasionally try to share the bed with us. But she often comes running over to be pet, and she'll hold entire conversations with you. If you catch her while she's sleeping, you can snuggle her tummy and she'll purr. She has a the sweetest little mew. She steals my ponytail holders to play with, and even when I can't find any to use myself, I leave them for her, because she's just so adorable.

So there: today's Tuesdays with Dory has been preempted by this shout-out to my sweet little Nelly Jelly Belly.