You are all much much better than cats

THANK YOU all for the comments on that last post. The reassurance and the perspective were both incredibly helpful. And it's true, there are a lot of situations where adults don't necessarily know how much the kids they meet know, and how much those kids' parents have already told them or want them to know. I might be somewhat over-vigilant on the Mermaid Girl's behalf, not wanting her to walk into a new school in a new city (none of which newness she wanted or asked for) with the added social handicap of being The Kid Who Told Everyone About Where Babies Come From.

Though, come to think of it, that's not necessarily a handicap among the kids themselves, really; more their parents. (And, as my sister-in-law pointed out the other day, not necessarily among the parents either; we had a nice time picturing MG over at some new friend's house, said friend asking her over string cheese and crackers about how her moms managed to "have" her, and the friends' parents eagerly eavesdropping, thrilled at the chance to discover the secrets of lesbian reproduction once and for all, without the bother of having to become close enough friends with us so as to be able to ask such a personal question.)

We've had an exciting last couple of days, featuring:

• Major housecleaning at Housesit #1
• Two airport trips (one pickup, one dropoff)
• The packing of two cars with stuff going to three different destinations
• Two kitty carrier breakouts (the second one taking place in the car as RW was on her way out of town, and necessitating an unscheduled midnight turnaround and sleepover at house-sit #2, where I'd been about to peacefully retire, confident that RW had enough coffee in her to make the trip back safely)
• The discovery, at 1 AM, of what is either fleas or worms on the part of a Cat Who Shall Remain Anonymous, resulting in the emergency hot-water washing of the bedding that some of us were going to sleep on
• Some sprayage/pee on the part of the same anonymous cat, onto MG's carseat, resulting in said carseat being dumped into a bathtub full of hot water and left until morning;
• One exhausted RW, who was up until 6:30 on account of all that coffee, consumed the night before in anticipation of the truncated trip
• One trip to the mega-pet-store to purchase high-tech plastic NASA-approved cat carrier
• One cat-peeing-in-NASA-approved-carrier incident on Take #3 of RW's return to Seattle
• One cat bath, heroically undertaken by RW
• One dead battery, revived by my heroic brother and sister-in-law while I was entertained by my niece.
• Oh, and there seemed to be some plumbing problems in the midst of all that. But, things being what they were, those occasioned only hysterical laughter.
  

After that, things calmed down somewhat. Now we have, not necessarily in chronological order:

• Housesit Host #1 safely returned to Vancouver and pleased with the state of her house
• Brother and family safely seen off to their home in Florida
• RW and MG safely returned to Seattle to start packing up as soon as RW has a couple more naps
• Shy Kitty safely returned to Seattle, reportedly still drying off
• Carseat still drying off, but no longer smelly
  
• Me safely installed on my own in Housesit #2 until Saturday. With clean bedding.
• Anonymous Cat recovering from Shy Kitty's overnight incursion into his territory, but banned from all bedrooms at the moment
• All cars running adequately, though the car that made the cat-infused trip to Seattle may never be the same.

Is your head spinning? Yah. Mine too. Now it's off to IKEA with me, after I drop some stuff off at the new place.

I think when Shy Kitty dies we may just get some fish.