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Thursday, July 21, 2011

Back in the day, I used to love my cats

Before I had my kids, I loved my cats.  They were my babies.

And now, they are relegated to the basement.  A very cushy basement it is, but the basement nonetheless.

I spend more time than I'd like cleaning up cat puke from the floor and cat poop from the couch.  Why the hell the cats can't stand in one spot and throw everything up in same spot, I don't know.  They insist on puking, walking 8 steps, puking again, walking 6 steps, puking again, and so on.  Meaning that at any given time I have like 18 damp rags covering the floor trying to soak up the stains associated with cat vomit.

We replaced the carpet on the main floor of the house because there were so many nasty cat vomit stains.  Fortunately, the basement carpet is berber so it hides stains better than the solid beige carpet that was on our main floor.

After M was born, the cats started pooping in my closet and occasionally on our bed.  My medication helps tremendously, but my OCD and poop are not a good combination.  I can barely tolerate cleaning up my kids' poop, especially when it escapes the confines of the diaper/pull-up, so I wasn't having any part of the cat poop, especially with a 5-year-old, a 2-year-old and a newborn in my care.

The truth is the cats are a right royal pain in my ass.  Right now, as I type this, one of them is banging the shit out of the basement door and hollering.  As soon as my human needy, loud children go to bed, my feline needy, loud children start knocking.  I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought that maybe they would only live to about the 15-year mark rather than the 20-year mark (they are 13 years old).

I took them for their annual physical and shots and ended up paying $300 for the doctor visit, shots and geriatric blood work.  Gonzo has a level 2-3 heart murmur, and I was told they could do a cardiac ultrasound for close to $400.

There was a time when I would have spent that sum for my cats, but that time was before I had 3 young kids.  Lord knows, I don't want my cats to be in pain or suffer (which is part of the reason behind the basement living; cats can only tolerate so many toddlers/preschoolers chasing them....and my boys are relentless in their pursuit of the cats).  But $400 will buy a LOT of diapers or pay for part of N's tonsillectomy bills.

Suffice it to say, Gonzo will not be undergoing a cardiac ultrasound.

The vet had told me to call the Monday after their appointment to see what the blood work indicated.  It has been almost 3 weeks since their vet visit and today I remembered to call.  Everything looks fine but the vet is supposed to call me tomorrow to go over the results.

I expect I will be expected to act like I care.


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