My niece Randy visited this weekend.

I never get to see her so this was really a treat. And Randy is special.

When she was about 12 years old she used her allowance and baby sitting money to buy me a fish tank with fish in it. It cost about $21, which was a huge amount to a kid at that time.

Then about 15 years ago I decided to get parakeets. Randy who never does anything half way had about a million birds so she drove down and brought me 2 parakeets that had been hand raised by her.

I had them for a few years.

After dave left Randy decided I needed another pet. Luckily she had about 40 cats at the time and she gave me Elvis.

He was just a baby and as Randy said, she doesn’t usually give kittens to anyone over 65 but she figured if I corked off she’d take him back, so she waived that rule.

I was worried that Elvis was lonely so Julie found me Ray.

As you know my baby boy didn’t outlive me but I really loved him and miss him still.

Randy was going to meet Ray for the first time.

He acted like a real asshole. He barked or cried every time we weren’t playing with him and insisted that anyone who sat down had to be constantly kissed.

Here’s Randy meeting her cousin.

By the time she left the next day she was happy to get back to the peace of her house with her 10 cats, one dog and a few parrots.