It seemed to all happen at once... My roommate (and second mother to my cats) moved out and gave up all responsibility of two cats that we took into our home together. I had to really start growing up and working my butt off to pay rent because the 'rents were tired of doing it for me. I joined a band that rehearsed in Hoboken, which meant commuting from Spanish Harlem 4 nights a week. And to top it all off my boyfriend at the time declared he could never come to my apartment again because the last time he did my cats gave him an asthma attack that put him in the emergency room, so if I ever wanted to see him I couldn't spend time at home.

When did I spend time at home? Looking back two years ago it seems like the answer to that is "almost never." I would get up around 12 or 1 pm exhausted from not having gotten to my boyfriend's apartment in Queens until about 3:00 am from band practice, spend time on the computer looking for promo stuff for my band, wait until the last possible moment to go to the train dreading the commute back to my place, get there, shower, change, overfeed Rico and Hector so they'd be good until tomorrow, scoop out their litter box (usually stinking by this point), and leaving for work with practice after that, just to do it all over again the next day.

I always thought that Rico and Hector were fine without me there all the time because for 1. they have each other, 2. they have my roommates (I don't know how any of my sub-letters put up with them), and 3. cats are independent, right?

How was I to know how wrong I was? Rico and Hector did not get along at all. My roommates (and probably the random sub-letters too) were unhappy with the cats behavior, the stinky litter box, the shedding everywhere. And most of all my babies desperately needed and wanted my love and attention.

...I read an article that told a tragic story about a mother who had no idea that her teenage daughter had been a victim of rape. She didn't see the signs. The report said the mother was single and attempting, like so many others, to be "Supermom."