Sunday, January 17, 2010

Cats


I’m an animal lover and love all animals. Insects and lizards who wonder into my house are safe from me for I will not squash cockroaches, spiders or kill the little house lizards that adorn the walls of my house, as they do in tropical Asian countries. For the most part these little creatures only need to fear my cat or if my daughter, who is deathly afraid of cockroaches, comes screaming out of the bathroom yelling at me to kill it. I have four dogs, two cats and one rabbit. But of all the animals around it is the poor cat which gets the bum rap.

Cats are not only disliked in Asian countries but also some people in the west don’t like them. In Canada cat owners are not allowed to let their cats wonder around outside now because of complaints from people who do not want cats crapping in their gardens. In Asia many people don’t like cats and so there are a lot of strays out there. They have dog catchers who periodically go around rounding up stray dogs but cats are pretty much left to their own devices, living in the rough. My daughter has eight cats. All are rescue cats except for one. At one time she was quite active in a group called “Cat Rescuers”. Now that she has the baby she doesn’t have the time although she still has the eight cats.

During her pregnancy well meaning friends and acquaintances informed her that it was time to get rid of the cats. They insisted that you can’t keep cats with a baby in the condo. Why is there so much fear over cats? Yeah I know there have been reports that have found that cat urine and crap is harmful to pregnant women. But it has also been stated that if a pregnant woman cleans a litter box all she has to do is wash her hands thoroughly. If you have a baby at home any sane person is not going to clean the litter box out with their bare hands then attend to the baby directly. There are pooper scoopers to clean out the box and all houses should have soap and water to clean up afterwards. So far the cat fur doesn’t bother the baby. For the most part it is people with allergies to cats or has asthma who should avoid them. The baby is fine.

It used to be when I visited my daughter all the cats would go into hiding. Now that I have been going to the condo to babysit my granddaughter the cats are used to me and during the day you can see them lying around the apartment in different area’s catching their forty winks. Cats are mostly active at night and the early part of the morning so when I enter the condo in the morning I am greeted by cats swarming around my ankles looking for food. Half the time I end up tripping over one of them and I am surprised that I have not fallen and broken my neck yet. During the day they are not much of a problem except for the odd one that steals my chair and stares daggers at me when I kick its ass out. Another cat likes to irritate me when I make my breakfast. Turn around too long and the cat will be on the counter licking my toast. Yuck!! The other day I washed the baby’s clothes and one of the cats was sleeping on the washing machine so I had to throw his ass off so I could load the machine. He wasn’t happy. He sauntered into the kitchen flopped on the floor staring cock at me. When I walked past him and bent down to pet him he scratched me. His displeasure was made known.

The cats don’t bother the baby although once in a while one of them will try to sleep her baby chair. I just throw it out. The baby is not bothered by fur, as my daughter vacuums the condo regularly. For the most part all you have to do is keep it clean. After all cats do have a purpose. They keep mice and rats away, walls are free of lizards and cockroaches. Now all I have to do is watch where I’m walking. This morning, when carrying the baby, one of the cats entwined in my legs and almost tripped me up. I should be used to it by now though, as every day, for almost ten years, there is a cat in my house which will almost cause me to fall down the stairs.

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