Pandemic, or Personality Test?: Confessions of a Cat Lady

I have a really great litter box I have been saving since my cat died in 2009. My husband found it
yesterday in a corona virus-inspired spring cleaning. He says we are getting rid of it. He sites the fact that I haven't had a cat since he's known me... But it's a really great litter box.

With all the time stuck at home for spring cleaning, we are revealing more about ourselves through our stuff, and the stuff that we buy. We are also revealing to our family and friends how we behave in a crisis. Holding onto a litter box for 11 years seems like the behavior of a hoarder, but thanks to the current pandemic, I can most assuredly say that I am not a hoarder. My friends and family are stocking toilet paper, flour, rice, multitools, chickens-- and plywood to board up the windows and protect it all. I can't even make a good "Quarantini" because I wasn't in a rush to buy Emergen-C.

I may seem ill-prepared, but Alaska is so far behind the rest of the US in corona cases that we seem to actually be getting jealous. Yesterday, Alaska claimed its first death due to corona virus. The victim was not in Alaska when they got sick, never came here, and passed away in Washington. But their driver's license said Alaska, so they're ours.  This seems like a weird, big-government desire to get on the charts. Then last night, my little town of Homer claimed its first case of corona virus. Again, the person is in Anchorage, has been traveling, and has not been back to Homer. But Homer wants to get on the books. Why are we rushing to be included in this deadly pandemic? Shouldn't we be striving to be virus-free? Human nature is to jump off a bridge if all your friends are doing it... Or jump into a pandemic? In the absence of sports, people are following the infection and death rates, along with the stock market, like they would be following the Final Four, and Alaska does not want to be left off of people's brackets.

I can't even follow the bracket system on a normal year. Maybe because I spend my time on the lookout for a cat deserving of the amazing litter box I have in storage. For years, I have considered myself a sports fan, but the corona virus is revealing that I'm really a cat lady-- or at least that if a cat wants to break into my garage and steal my litter box, I am not going to put up much of a defense.