cats as our companions [topic trade]
This is a topic trade coming from a recent member of the GrizGaz discord server Zachary Kai.
Cats. It's funny, I used to not be much of a cat person. I always considered myself a dog person because that's what I grew up with. I had my German Shepherd-Boxer Sammy, and my mutt Mia.1
I became a cat lover when my step-dad moved in and I took over watching his cat since my mom is allergic to them. I always kept my door closed to keep her from escaping. She was an older black cat named Kiki, named after the author Jack Kerouac (her official name being Kerouac). I grew to love this cat, she hated my dog who routinely would hiss at Mia whenever they came into close contact together.
After moving out, taking Mia with me, I had yearned for a cat again. I told my wife (then girlfriend) how much I wanted to get one after we moved in together. I wanted another void walking around. I would semi get my wish when my wife surprised me with this little snowball named Olaf (named after the snowman from Frozen), a Siamese-Flame Point. At the time, he was about the size of my hand when we first got him. My wife's childhood best friend has his sister.
Olaf grew older, and so did Mia. Eventually Mia would see her mounding medical bills and decide to go the Canadian Healthcare route on my wife's birthday while we were out of town. Escaping from some hole in the fence and going for one last walk before stepping in front of a car. Thankfully, old girl was on enough painkillers that she probably didn't feel a thing. According to my SIL who was watching her, some biker found her on the side of the road and the old girl was just laying there seemingly happy, not a whimper. She was put to sleep not long after. I remember that phone call. We were with my wife's parents in the car waiting to go to dinner, when my SIL called to break the news to them first so they could then break it to my wife and I.
I miss my old girl, I remember the day we got her when I was about 8 in a pound in Los Angeles. I remember thinking we'd have to give her back after some time because I confused adoption with fostering. She was my girl. We eventually got her cremated, and got her a nice little box with a plaque that reads:
Here's to 16 years of love and memory...
Just one memory apparently... fuckin crematorium.
Anyway, some days had passed and Olaf, now a teenager in cat terms, was probably just as depressed as I was. Walking around, sad meowing, probably wondering where his older sister was. So, I said "fuck it, cya in a bit pal, I'm gonna go find you a sister". I went to an animal shelter who, as seemingly fate would have it, the regional bank was covering all adoption fees. So, I walked to where the kittens were and found a group of kittens that were rescued from a hoarding situation, each named after Super Mario characters. Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Daisy.
Peach came up to the cage and wanted scritches. What the fuck was I supposed to do? NOT take her home? I went to the front, said "I want that one", packed little Peach into a box, and took her home to the surprise and delight of my wife.
We had those two for a while. Then one random day after about a year since Peach had joined our lives, my wife and I went on a breakfast date and thought, "why don't we go to the local animal shelter and just look?"
Of course, anyone who goes into an animal shelter to "just look" is full of shit. Especially after coming across one cage with a teenage cat. A black cat with green eyes, just like Kiki, just like the cat I always wanted in my life again. My eyes lit up, we came up to him and it was as if he had meshed with us perfectly. In the shelter his name was Spielberg (after the director). My wife and I both that was a stupid fucking name for a cat. I decided to give him the name I had saved in the event I ever got the opportunity to find my void, Loki. Boy does that little fucker live up to his name... Initially Peach didn't like Loki, but they've all since grown to get along with each other. Eventually my daughter would come into this world and would set the ratio of cats to humans to 1:1.
So, we are now a house of 3 cats and 3 humans. Olaf is "my" cat, Peach is my wife's, and Loki is my daughter's.
So, cats as our companions. What can I say about these funny little dudes?
I once heard that dogs are like a forever toddler, and cats are like the chill roommate that shits in a box you have to clean up. This is honestly pretty accurate. I used to get really overstimulated a lot having a dog in the house, mostly due to when someone would knock she'd bark at the door incessantly, at least until she went mostly deaf. I will take the 2am zoomies and "lemme sing you the song of my people" over a dog barking any day of the week.
I would now consider myself a cat person. I still love dogs, but cats have taken over. There's nothing quite like having your little buddy come lay on your chest and purr while you play video games. Or watching your daughter give little hugs and kisses to them... after she kicks them... toddlers amirite?
Cats are chill, quiet, low maintenance, and cuddly sometimes. They have their own personality in a way dogs don't. You won't always get a cat that is excited to see you all the time like a dog, you may get that cat that is about as absent as some people's dad's. Olaf and Peach are snuggle bugs. Loki is when he's in the mood for it, though he does like to sleep at the head of the bed between my wife and I. Olaf clings to me and Peach clings to my wife, Loki tends to keep to himself. Olaf will haymaker the shit out of you if you piss him off and you're not me (though he's fuckin boxed me on a couple of occasions). Peach and Loki wouldn't hurt a fly.
Anyway, thanks Zach for this post topic. It was nice to talk about the story of how cats overtook my heart... and my house.
Reply via email: me@absurdpirate.com
as of writing this...
I am at work after overcoming a stomach flu that kicked the ass of everyone in my house. Thankfully it has subsided. I finally got around to doing this topic trade and had a lot of fun writing it. Had a fun game night last night playing modded versions of Halo CE and Halo 2.
Funny thing about Mia, the pound we got her from told us she was a Chihuahua-Shepherd mix... I don't even want to go into the logistics of how THAT would work out. In any case I call her a mutt, because it's not really clear what breed-mix she is. Chihuahua certainly with how she shook all the time, but I reckon she was some kind of Terrier as well.↩