Who knew there was a national cat day? It is today, October 29th.

As viewers of Better Connecticut know, Kara and I now have two cats in the family, who joined us after the death of our longtime cat, Mackey, named after Mackinac Island where Kara and I got engaged.

Ember Lou is a six year old former breeding cat, who is loving life with us as a newly spayed girl whose only concerns are napping, playing, napping, eating and more napping. No studs chasing her down. We rescued her from an uncertain future, and added Lou to her name.

An already neutered Angelo came to us this month after his owner realized one of the children in the family was allergic to him. Our daughter named him. “Angelo is Italian for angel, and Mackey sent him to us from heaven.”

They are sleeping on a stuffed octopus we named Ollie. We got it before our daughter was born, and both she, and later our son, along with Mackey, loved it. Heck, I even fell asleep on it. It’s now the cats’ secret nap spot. It’s worn out and stained with crayons, paint and juice, but we’ll probably never get rid of it.