Broadcasting live from the Michael Studio in Clearwater, Florida. This, well, this is The Daily Grateful. Are you a cat person? I didn't set out to be one.
I never really did set out to be a cat person. Hi, I'm Michael Kroos. This is The Daily Grateful. I think I said that it was The Daily Grateful, but I didn't say who I was.
And who I was is who I am. And I am Michael Kroos. And I'm in my studio. And one of my acoustic tiles on the wall right over there.
You can see me pointing. I'm pointing. Is falling off and it's on the ground. You know why?
Do you want to know why? Because one of my cats, Ramona, the youngest. Actually, I own no cats. Okay, all right.
So I have two cats. I have Cornelius, who is my son Kyle's cat. I'm babysitting for him. I've been babysitting for Cornelius now for about 13 years.
12 or 13 years. And then I took Zach, who you heard on the show yesterday. Was it yesterday? No, it was the day before.
He was on the show. Anyway, I had him. I took Zach. I'm not even talking well.
And I'm not going to edit. We're just going straight on through. I took Zach to the ASPCA. Oh, gosh.
About, I don't know, 10 or 12 years ago. Because I thought he needed a kitten. And we went. And he sat in a room full of cats.
This little tiny room. A room smaller than my studio. And he sat in there on a chair. And cats were coming up to him.
And then Ramona came up to him. Jumped up on his lap. And just sat there. And it was quite obvious to me that that was Zach's cat.
Ramona was Zach's cat. They weren't partying with each other. So, okay. Off we go.
So now there's two cats. Zach then eventually moved out. And, you know, went on with his life as he became an adult. And blah, blah, blah.
And guess who stayed? Yeah, Ramona stayed. And Ramona was up in the window of the studio. Which I've got these really nice cloth curtains on for sound.
But on the side of the windows, I have these acoustic, you know, very, very cool acoustic tiles to deaden the sound. To make it sound very professional in here. And I'm sitting here doing a podcast. I don't know, last week.
And I'm looking over at that part of the wall. And I see Ramona's paw reaching out and grabbing an acoustic tile. And I'm in the middle of talking, right? I can't say anything.
Then I see Ramona grab the tile and pull it back behind the curtain. I said, how did that even work? Now, the way those tiles are attached to the wall are with little pen needles things. You know, they have a little head, a little pen.
And you just tap them into the wall. You put two in each tile. And you line them all up. And you find out that's the way you can take them down if you want to.
Well, obviously, Ramona figured out how to take them down. And she is just so damn proud of herself for that. She just thinks that's the greatest thing in the world. The tile is laying on the floor.
I was going to put it back up. But I cannot find the pen needles. Because they came out and went to the carpeting. And I'm not getting on my hands and knees and going through the carpeting and looking.
But I've got a bunch of them here and a drawer somewhere. So I will, this weekend, find it and put the tile back up. But this is what cats do. Cats control your life.
Now, I can sit on the television. If you are on my Facebook page or have been on my Facebook page for any amount of time, you will see every so once in a while I will publish a picture of both of my cats sitting on my lap. And you see it from my vantage point. Because I've got, you know, the recliner up.
And there are the cats sitting on my lap. Just sitting there. They're not, you know, I hope I don't have to pee. Because if I do, they're there.
I've got to wait. And that's just the way it is. The cats rule. So, you know, and when it's cold.
Oh, man, when it's cold. They're like all over me. And when I go to bed at night when it's cold, Ramona is down between my feet. Laying down, curled up there.
And Cornelius crawls up on the small of my back. I'm a stomach sleeper. Don't judge me. Crawls up on the, you know, the small of my back or my butt.
And he sleeps there. So both the cats are touching me for the entire night. And I'm sleeping with two cats. It has been that way for years.
It will be that way for however long the cats continue to live. Or I continue to live. One of us, you know, who knows. But for right now, we're all together.
And we're kind of a close-in-the-family. Sometimes if I'm sitting out on the recliner, Cornelius is sitting on my lap. Sometimes it is the other one. It's Ramona.
Or Ramona likes to sit next to me and then just snuggle up to me. It's just really weird. You have a relationship like that with your cats? I certainly hope you do.
Because cats are just terrific. They're so good. Dogs are okay. I've owned dogs.
I'm not going to own any more dogs. I totally out of the dog business. Totally 100% out of the dog business. Dogs require too much care.
You've got to take them outside so they can poop. Cats, they go poop in a box. Every couple of days, you go grab the box. Throw it away of cat litter.
Throw it away. Put in some more cat litter. Stick it in there. Cats are good.
Can't leave a dog for two days and go away. Cats, you dump a bunch of food in the bowl. Make sure you've got a lot of water. Out the door you go.
You come back two days later. You're fine. Dog, oh no. Somebody's got to take care of the dog.
Somebody's got to come over. Or you've got to put the dog in the dog. He got a daycare. Kenneled him up.
I remember kenneling up. We had this horrifically horrible dog named Luke. Oh gosh. I totally dislike this dog.
We would do family vacations. You know, we had all the kids. And we would take Luke. We took Luke to a kennel and stuck him in the kennel because we were going to be gone for six days.
When we came back, the kennel said, no more Luke here. Nope. We like you. You're nice folks.
But that dog is not coming back. So, you know, I'm not a dog person. I'm all done with dogs. I've done nothing but spend excessive amounts of money on dogs.
And they eat my furniture. Cats, on the other hand, they're nice. I'm a cat lover. Sue me.
It's just the way it is. What about you? Are you a cat lover? I'm a cat lover.
Cats are cool. Cats are awesome. Cats love you. They don't love you unconditionally.
You know, if you piss off a cat, they will ignore you for a day or two. I am not, you know, I know this. I know this. A dog will always come.
Cats, they're judgmental. You've got to prove to them that you love them. Otherwise, you know, they're on the other side of the room. They don't care two badombos about you.
Oh well. We'll see you next week, everybody. Have a fabulous, fabulous. Is this Easter weekend?
I think it is. All right. See you later.