ModestlyHotGirl wrote:
Peeve: My frickin' cat. This morning she not only peed on the rug, but barfed all over the place. So I ignored her for a couple of hours, then she climbed up on my lap and snuggled her way into forgiveness. She makes me so mad, but I can't stay mad at her.
We've been cat-less for about a year now, and we keep thinking about getting a new cat. But I want a cat without issues, which I don't think exists. My wife's family had 3 cats, one that belonged to each kid. Each of them had all sorts of issues. Following is the cat rundown:
The story of Baby Cat (my wife's cat): This cat has terrible allergies. She constantly sneezes all over the place, so you have to always be on the lookout to clean up cat snot off of things. Because of her allergies, you have to catch her and give her allergy medication daily. Then she got cat diabetes from taking the allergy medication for so long.
The story of Frankie (her brother's cat): This cat cannot figure out how to use a litter box. She apparently used to know, but now I guess she figures she's part of the family, and feels like that formality is unnecessary now. They tried everything in the books to retrain her, replacing the litter twice daily, putting tinfoil over the spots where she goes to pee, replacing carpet and carpet pads and scrubbing the dang cement, everything.
The story of ummm, the other cat (her sister's cat, can't remember the name right now): This cat is a jerk. The first two cats have issues, but they are generally nice to people. This one bites and claws at anybody who comes near. Small children from all over know her as the "Mean Kitty." She also throws up a few times daily. On the couch, on the floor, on your lap, on the bed. She has no preference. But I learned quickly when visiting not to walk around a room at night without turning on the lights, to avoid walking barefoot through cat barf.
All of the kids now are grown up and out of the house, and each of them have had a turn living away from home. Our issues with Baby Cat got to the point where we just couldn't take care of her anymore, and we were going to have to have her put to sleep. The other kids all got to that same point with the other cats. However, my mother-in-law is a big softy who, rather than let us put all these dang cats to sleep, took in all the cats again. They all live outside now, so her house isn't a mess of snot, pee, and barf, but now they are taking care of three cats that weren't even theirs and surely aren't nice to have around.
So after that lengthy sidenote, I'm not sure I want another cat, because I don't think there is any way to reliably get one that isn't completely nuts.