A few months ago, wanting to test-drive getting a dog, I volunteered to help with H.A.R.T., a local animal shelter. Volunteers come to one of several nearby Petco’s and hold a dog on a leash for a few hours outside the store to show it off to potential adopters. I got a beagle, and it was mostly a dull afternoon—my beagle just wanted to yank me around to find stuff to sniff (I know... beagles are like that). Anyway, due to the mostly unrewarding-ness of it and the fact that it quickly got colder and I didn’t want to spend three hours standing around outside in freezing temperatures, I haven't volunteered there since. (Ugh, I feel awful about this just typing it.) However, the other day while running some sims at work, I went onto the H.A.R.T. website to browse through the animals that are currently up for adoption. I started looking at cats, wondering if maybe I might have grown out of my cat super-allergy, because amazingly, my little sister has done it. I was bowled over by how cute the kittens were, so I stopped by the Petco store by my work on the way home to see them in real life. As expected, they were adorable. This Petco has a little room that has six or eight crates of cats, but it’s separated from the rest of the store by a glass door, presumably so that they don’t get eaten by dogs or covered with flying snot from people who are allergic. Care to guess how long I lasted in the little glass room? About 20 minutes. I felt perfectly fine for those 20 minutes, but then I felt a sneeze coming on, so I left the little room to spare the cats and family who had come in to look. I then proceeded to sneeze/sniffle my entire way out of the store, across the parking lot to Target, and halfway through my Target errands. I felt fine by the time I left Target, but my eyes were still a little pink the next morning. But considering the general state of my eyes, I probably shouldn’t place too much blame on the kittens.

So, most likely, getting a cat is not in my future. But it’s too bad, because they’re so cuddly and adorable. And they’re much less work than dogs, even though they generally don’t play fetch or go running with you.