The universe is determined to give me a cat!
I know this seems like an absurd notion… but hear me out. I used to be super friendly with cats. I mean, they were – and still are – my favorite animal. Truthfully, cats are my spirit animal and anyone who knows me says I was a cat in a previous life. When I was younger, being surrounded by cats was fun, and I loved it, even with the little shits took a swipe at me. But as I got older, I developed allergies to them. Their fur makes me sneeze and itchy. If they scratch me, I look like I’ve been mauled! It was a real bummer.
We moved into the apartment we live in now around three or four years ago, and to say the complex has a feral cat problem would be an understatement. At first it was neat, having random kitties around. Some would come up to us, and others wouldn’t – as is the way of the fickle feral cat. Then… I got my dog.
Midnight is a lab/pit mix – lab on paper, so my complex couldn’t say I couldn’t have him. He’s the bestest boy and has always been curious about the cats, but never outright hostile to them. About a year and a half after we got Midnight, my dad took me to pick up a puppy for my mom, and there were other puppies there… one precious girl who’d had a home, the person backed out, and she wasn’t going to have a forever home. The only problem with the puppy was that she is a St. Bernard/Mastiff mix. So she started out small and cute, but she got big FAST! Midnight adjusted to her well, though. He doesn’t like getting trampled by the horse-dog or slobbered all over – but none of us do.
This year though, is when the universe decided I needed to add a cat to the mix. (My ex-husband calls it the cat distribution system. He’s sent me memes and everything.) The first cat came during one of the first really cold snaps we had. The poor thing was on my porch, shivering, and I had to bring it in. I called animal control to come get her and that was that.
But that most certainly was not that. Around a month later, upon parking my car after arriving home from work, as soon as I closed my door I was greeted with a meow. At my feet, in the parking lot in front of my apartment, was another cat. It was warmer outside, so I didn’t bring this one in, but I did go outside to play with him. Meanwhile, my bestest boy, Midnight, is losing his marbles inside. He’s normally very well-behaved. Never darts out the door or anything. Whelp, I opened the door to check on the little dude, and Midnight darted out and straight up attacked this cat. Chased it around and everything before finally responding to me screaming at him to come the heck back.
I think he’s determined that he’s had his space invaded by another dog already, and a cat was in the house once before. He wasn’t about to let another one invade his space. And I get it. I felt bad for yelling at him – we cuddled so I could make it up to him. All of this to say, no matter what “The Cat Distribution System” thinks, I do not need, nor do I want a cat. Please cease and desist.