Kat's Arbitrary Thought Processes

For the second time in as many weeks I’ve been confronted with a box full of kittens in need of a home. I love cats. I used to have a cat many years ago. My screenname even came from my cat – theKytiKat. I am a cat person.

But. I’ve come to realize that I have forgotten what it means to actually own a cat. It’s been 8 years since my Kytti turned mean and I had to get rid of her. Last Sunday I had the opportunity to hold one of the kittens that was found in a nieghobr’s shed. The feel of those sharp little claws, and scratches still visible on the backs of my hands three days later reminds me, it’s been a long time since I owned a cat. Perhaps my mind is romanticising the whole experience. Perhaps it’s time I remembered a few things.

Like the claws. When my Kytti was just a baby, my parents paid for the surgery to declaw her. I was 16 at the time, and couldn’t have afforded the surgery, and my parents didn’t want their couch to become an oversized scratching post. The result – I don’t remember what it was like to have a cat with claws.

The smell of cat food. Talk about gross. It’s been a long time since I smelled that particular smell. Yuck. and once you get it one your hands, it takes alot of washing to get it back off.
Then there is the litter box. Eww. Not to mention that I don’t think there is a place in this house where I could keep a litterbox, and keep the baby out of the “sand”. Gross! Of course if you ask my mom, she will tell you that I don’t remember much about the litter box cuz I *never* cleaned it myself. I take exception to that, cuz I remember cleaning the litter box often enough… Though admittedly, Mom often had to get on my case about the stench to get me to do it, cuz it was in her washroom. And I’m sure there were times when she just scooped the thing herself… So of course she doesn’t remember the times I did scooped it on my own.

Throw in the cost. The amount of money each month in cat litter, food, vet visits, flea and tick treaments, declaw, spay/nueter (cuz I wouldn’t want to be the one trying to pawn off a box load of kittens next.) etc. It adds up quick! And what do I really want… a cat right now? or a house in the very near future? House wins, hands down. I want out of the psyc ward that this neighborhood has become. (That a whole other rant, and I just don’t want to go there. it’s not pretty.)

And like I have time to train an animal right now. *sigh* A pet is a nice idea, in theory. But then reality reaches out and slaps me in the face, and I realize.

I don’t want a cat.

And to my DH. Yes, feel free to point me to this post the next time a boxload of kittens shows up on our doorstep.