The Truth About Cats

I've had my cats for about two years now. And although I've talked about the trials and tribulations of cat pregnancy, there's lots of things that people don't think about when getting a cat. So I thought I'd share some truths about cats.

1. Cats throw up ... ALOT: I've dealt with a lot of cat puke. While my cats were pregnant, they had morning sickness. If I change their food too drastically, they throw up. Basically every alternating Sunday, they find an excuse to throw up. Actually the throwing up doesn't bother me as much as the fact that my cats seem to go out of their way to throw up on the carpet. If they are in the (tiled) kitchen, they will deliberately go to the living room to vomit on the rug.

2. There is nothing worse than the sound of a cat hacking up a furball: It's the combination of a person dry heaving, wracking with coughs and old man with emphesyma. Nuff said.

3. If you have a cat that sheds, invest in a good vacuum cleaner: Seriously, if my cats have hairballs so do I. There is hair everywhere and in the summer I might as well give up.

4. Cats scratch ... and it leaves marks: Every day I notice a new mark or a healing one. It doesn't necessarily hurt but it sucks. Cats especially scratch when you bathe them, ake them to the vet and generally try to make them do anything that they don't one hundred percent want to do.

5. Cats make THE BEST cuddlers: The only reason I keep my cats around. When it comes to cuddling they are number one. Sometimes I don't even realize they're there until a comforting paw wraps around me or I get a sweet lick on my hand. It's the best feeling and probably the only thing that gets them saved from being dropped in Lake Merritt.

Bad Eggs

Update: Cat has been spayed. She's doing ok and I'm keeping her from licking the stitches. More posts to come.

The past few days have been a bit hectic. To confirm, yes the cat is pregnant, and no she will not be having kittens. Not on my watch. I know it seems wrong and/or cruel and if my cat was a person I would not force her to have an abortion but seeing as how it's my house, my money, my time and she can't go out and get a job, this is definitely a time when my vote counts for more.

Of course, being in this situation leads to the contemplation of one's own ability to procreate (that sounded really deep). It's funny because when I asked my mother, "guess who's pregnant again?", she started to rattle off the names of my friends one after the other and I realized that the amount of moms that I know has definitely skyrocketed recently. And as I approach my own "quarter-life crisis" I've had the "baby" conversation with more and more people. There's no question about it, I want to be a mom someday but there's a lot that goes into it. I don't want to start having kids in my 30's, but I want to be in a more stable place, financially and mentally. I want to spend time at home initially, but I definitely want to be working again fairly soon, and I am totally not opposed to my (fictional) husband/lover staying home and taking care of the (right now imaginary) children.

I have ideas, I have plans, while clearly all my cat has is an intense sex drive and no contraceptives.