family injury...nearly fatal.

Tonight something terrible happened.

Let me fill you in on what's been going on: About a month ago while I was in Ralphs buying some food, I came upon a little green plant that I wanted to bring home with me to add some greenery to our apartment. We decided to call him Herbert (pronounced er-bert, like herb). I thought it was pretty clever; nevermind that he is indeed not an herb. We did not have a pot to put him in, so I placed him inside one of our bowls until we got him a more permanent home. I eventually got one, but it is slightly too big for him so I figured I would wait until he got a little bigger and then I would re-pot him.

We kept Herbert on our bar in the kitchen for a while, where we could easily grab him and give him some water from the tap. It was quite convenient. However, when Rico got big enough to jump onto the counter (without the assistance of my leg) this became a problem. You could often find Rico on top of the counter with his face in the green plant and treating him as his very own chew toy.

So I decided to change Herbert's location to the top of the fridge. He was still in the kitchen, where he could be seen and make our kitchen a little more homely. With Rico being so excited he could finally jump onto the counter, he didn't care about the bigger picture of jumping on top of the fridge to find him....

...until tonight.

Yes, Rico has found Herbert again (with the assistance of Jono....) Rico was sitting on Jono's shoulder in the kitchen and I was getting a popsicle out of the freezer. Rico saw the freezer door open and he tried to climb onto the door and then I closed it. Well, Rico figured out the door connected to the actual fridge, and he became very curious. Jono saw this as a good experience to show Rico another great location to explore, and Rico was more than happy to go along with it. Jono put Rico on top of the fridge and said, "There, now you know where Herbert is." Then he set Rico down on the floor. We went back to sit on the couch and we look over and Rico is on top of the fridge again, taking a bite out of Herbert. So now Rico knows where Herbert has been hiding the past couple weeks and I have to find a new location for him. Poor Herbert...

This has not been Rico's first plant offense. His new favorite activity is climbing up trees, and when he gets to the top he meows for someone to come get him down. This first occured while Jono and I were at church and Rico was at my parent's house. My mother had to stand on a chair in her night-gown and coax him down the tree before he decided to come down. My father now refers to him as "el diablo gato".