All About Perspective: The Story of Ute/Carlos

Let's start with the perspective of Dear Husband, as told by his astute and accurate wife:
Arriving home from one of his endless shifts at one of his many jobs, Kim finds a new cat wandering about the house in Salt Lake City. Knowing his wife too well, he calls her and asks what she knows about the cat. Wife denies knowledge and points out she is in Montana -- asks if cat has a collar? Yes, he does -- Kim looks and discovers HIS phone number and name on the ID tag of this new cat, and that the cat's name is UTE -- the name of his favorite university, the University of Evil -- oops, I mean the University of Utah. Kim, who is not a cat fan, is confused and perplexed -- and suspicious.



Prior to this, Nicole was in California visiting her relatives, including the ones who have a ranch. Someone has once again dumped a kitten!!! Nicole knows what happens to most of the cats that get dumped -- it involves a car and a flattened cat. Nicole does what anyone in her situation would do -- she calls her mom.

Soon the abandoned kitten is sporting a new collar, a new ID tag, and a new name -- and is on an airplane flying to Utah.

Ute/Carlos reports that his life was just fine in sunny California when he was abruptly taken from his mom, dumped in a strange place, snatched from life on the streets (literally), collared, tagged, shoved in a bag and under a seat, dumped again at some strange house only to be discovered by a man who said something to the effect of, "where did this darn cat come from?"


Galen and Tanner LOVE the new cat! In fact, they form a little family and decide the cat has two dads! Every week the cat has a new name -- and so if one asks, "how is Ute?" the two dads act confused and say something like, "oh, you mean (insert name of the week)?" After trying on two dozen names, the two dads decide that Carlos is the cat's real name.

But Dear Husband actually kind of likes the cat, and to him, the cat is Ute -- not Carlos.

Here is the next part of the story:


The cat known as Ute to some and Carlos to others is shoved back in his little bag and brought to yet another state -- Montana and the State of Panic, as there are a bunch of dogs in this new state, generating the additional state (follow that?!). And so he escapes -- generating yet another State -- Great Anxiety.

Recaptured after being sprayed out from under the deck, Ute-Carlos has now lived safely in Montana for a few weeks and is getting brave enough to slink around the house...


The Morals of this Story:

From the perspective of Dear Husband: Don't trust your wife. Think carefully before marrying an animal-lover.
From the perspective of Nicole: Moms solve everything.
From the perspective of the two dads: Parenthood is a lot of responsibility and requires that one remember to keep doors closed.
From the perspective of Ute-Carlos: Run. Fast.