cat vs cat
Our cat situation is reaching critical mass here at chez hayes.
I've had cats since a small black and gray tabby, that we named Tigger, waltzed into my mom's teller window. How old was I? 9 or 10? He lived to a very cranky and skinny 18 years old. Later, in my first big girl apartment, I found a lovely little creamy Siamese mix kitty. Cashmere, I called her. She was a sweet little nuisance. Unlike Tigger, Cashmere didn't have much longevity, dying from a kidney condition. Even her follow-up, Cosmo, a lovely 6-toed calico, didn't make it to 8 years. I think a friend unkindly pointed out that cats seemed to expire like dairy products under my care. Nice. Like I didn't already feel horrible about losing my companion. Cosmo was pretty awesome, those extra toes were fascinating, except when they were dipping into my glasses of water.
Sancho, our black cat, was a stray my brother adopted when he was in school and when he was graduating and moving away, it seemed best for the kitty to come stay with me. He is a crotchety old man these days. I've been giving him insulin shots twice a day to treat his diabetes for over a year now, but recently he's started urinating on things again. In nice san serif fonts it seems like not much of a big deal but having a pet that pisses on your belongings is unbelievably annoying. Frankly, it pisses me off, this pissing. If I can smell it HERE there are probably some places I haven't found yet. So I'll up the insulin. The other uncomfortable thing to bring up is the expense; $135 for insulin and needles every two months, $32 a day cat sitting when we go out of town. See, one of the reasons people get cats is so they can leave for a week and have a neighbor stop in every day or so to throw some kibble in a bowl. We could've paid for the cats to fly out to Seattle in a passenger seat for that kinda cash!
There's also the horrendous, screeching cat-brawls that happen several times a day. The instigator of these brawls is Meep, the companion we adopted for sancho. Is this irony? The fact that the cat we got to be friends with Sancho instead routinely attacks him? There's sancho, trying to mind his old business and Meep is either creeping up behind him to pounce suddenly, or is just hovering in his personal zone enough to raise his hackles. Or if I should accidentally cause Sancho to hiss, which is ridiculously easy these days, meep takes that as a sign to attack.
So, you want a cat? Free!
I've had cats since a small black and gray tabby, that we named Tigger, waltzed into my mom's teller window. How old was I? 9 or 10? He lived to a very cranky and skinny 18 years old. Later, in my first big girl apartment, I found a lovely little creamy Siamese mix kitty. Cashmere, I called her. She was a sweet little nuisance. Unlike Tigger, Cashmere didn't have much longevity, dying from a kidney condition. Even her follow-up, Cosmo, a lovely 6-toed calico, didn't make it to 8 years. I think a friend unkindly pointed out that cats seemed to expire like dairy products under my care. Nice. Like I didn't already feel horrible about losing my companion. Cosmo was pretty awesome, those extra toes were fascinating, except when they were dipping into my glasses of water.
Sancho, our black cat, was a stray my brother adopted when he was in school and when he was graduating and moving away, it seemed best for the kitty to come stay with me. He is a crotchety old man these days. I've been giving him insulin shots twice a day to treat his diabetes for over a year now, but recently he's started urinating on things again. In nice san serif fonts it seems like not much of a big deal but having a pet that pisses on your belongings is unbelievably annoying. Frankly, it pisses me off, this pissing. If I can smell it HERE there are probably some places I haven't found yet. So I'll up the insulin. The other uncomfortable thing to bring up is the expense; $135 for insulin and needles every two months, $32 a day cat sitting when we go out of town. See, one of the reasons people get cats is so they can leave for a week and have a neighbor stop in every day or so to throw some kibble in a bowl. We could've paid for the cats to fly out to Seattle in a passenger seat for that kinda cash!
There's also the horrendous, screeching cat-brawls that happen several times a day. The instigator of these brawls is Meep, the companion we adopted for sancho. Is this irony? The fact that the cat we got to be friends with Sancho instead routinely attacks him? There's sancho, trying to mind his old business and Meep is either creeping up behind him to pounce suddenly, or is just hovering in his personal zone enough to raise his hackles. Or if I should accidentally cause Sancho to hiss, which is ridiculously easy these days, meep takes that as a sign to attack.
So, you want a cat? Free!
