I always wanted a cat growing up but my parents were against it. They had dogs when they were kids back in Dominica but they were cheap labour, not pets and they didn't understand them sleeping indoors and being all lovey with them. You didn't fraternize with the help.
When I finally moved out it took mere months to get the cat I always wanted. Endora came to us as a kitten huddled up in my brother's jacket. I was all ready to love her. She, on the other hand, had other, more sinister ideas. She was never cuddly or loveable. She'd hide for hours at a time only skulking out to stalk our unsuspecting feet. She'd lurk under the couch until we sat down then all you'd see was an attacking orange paw savagely darting out. Moments later you'd feel slicing pain as she evilly shredded your pants and socks down to the skin. All our pants were starting to look like they came from the Incredible Hulk's laundry basket.
The only time she was the least bit endearing was when she'd come running whenever you pulled out a sheet of aluminum foil. She'd glare at you, waiting for you to crush it into a ball and would actually play fetch. I've never seen anything before or since. You'd throw it and she'd bring it back in her mouth time after time. Until she'd realise that she'd exercised you enough and unsociably sidle away to wait for you to put on a fresh pair of socks. For 9 years we put up with her until she had some kind of kidney issue. I did cry when we took her to the vet for the last time, but more in the way that you cry when you break the serving dish you got as a wedding present. It's a bummer and you'll miss it because it had meaning but it was never going to last forever, was it? After her I wasn't sure I liked cats anymore. I was okay with never having another one.
Then came Taz. He was a fully grown neighbour's cat. Tina decided that she didn't want to take Taz to her new condo and was going to send him to the pound. Endora had only been gone a few months and because she was my first cat, we got her as a kitten, and she was still disagreeable, I was okay with never getting another one. Endora wrecked cats for me. But I couldn't let Taz get sent to the pound. He seemed like a good cat when I'd visited Tina so we thought we'd try just for a month or two. That was 8 years ago.
Taz turned me into a cat lover again. He comes when you call him, he snuggles on the couch with your for hours, he takes turns sleeping with all 5 of us at night, he lets the kids carry him around and stays where they put him. Tina had him declawed (poor thing) so he doesn't wreck the furniture, he purrs up a storm just by calling his name, he plays like a kitten, brings home "treats" in the summer and is generally the best cat ever. We all love him like mad. How can you tell? Everyone in the house but me has an allergy to him in some degree but no one seems to care. Just a sidebar: why haven't "they" come up with an injection for cats and dogs so they won't make allergic people sick? Wouldn't it be easier to give Taz a drug than put my whole family on medicine?
So anyway, here's to the best cat in the world. He's amazing and I can't say enough nice things about him. Except for the one time he had worms and freaked me out so bad... and I was entertaining my niece and her baby daughter at the time. Yeah, that was embarrassing. Well, I guess even my perfect cat can't be perfect all the time. There's nothing like worms escaping from your beloved cat's behind to make you realise that.
kxx
PS: Today's blog has a couple of links and photos. If you are reading this from facebook, click "view original post" above to read it the way I wrote it...
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