A few months ago my kids found a cat hanging around our house. It was on a day they each had a friend over and before I knew it they were asking for the camera and there were bowls of dog food and water in front its furry little body. Quite happy to be eating, the cat was quickly fading my hopes of Being a Person Who Never Owns a Cat.
The kids named it! I know! I don’t know how it happened but before I knew it they were calling it Scooter. I knew it wasn’t good.
I’m not a cat person; I’m sorry. I do not like them in the house; on counters, on tables, or anywhere else. I do not like a litter box or the thought of having to clean it out even though I pick up my dog’s poo. I do not like them acting like they know all your secrets; like every cat is someone you used to know.
Apparently my children live to disappoint me! They both claim to be Cat People! Lovers of Cats! I tried – their entire lives – to pass on my un-passion for cats. I’d shoo them (the cats, not the children) away calling them all Icky Kitty as my little cherubs’ faces showed broken dreams of cat ownership. I can’t count the number of times I’ve said “we’re not cat people!”
A sweet cat with a good disposition and wanting to come inside (NO!), I tried everything to get rid of it…signs up for Lost Cat and/or Free Cat at vets and everywhere online I could think of, with no luck. I thought about driving it to another neighborhood but since I’m not completely heartless, I committed myself to finding it a home somewhere.
My sister generously offered to take Scooter because I begged and begged the kids are extremely attached to the cat. Slight complication…I live in Georgia and she lives in Minnesota. After phone calls to animal shippers, a timely trip of hers to Savannah, GA with a layover in Atlanta and shelling out a plane ticket for the cat ($125), cat nip ($3), Benadryl ($0), a collar ($5), cat toy ($5) and an animal travel case ($60) we were able to make it happen. We bid farewell.
My sister bows to Scooter. She loves that cat. No longer matted up, he’s micro-chipped, his vaccines up-to-date and he’s neutered (well, there’s a funny expensive story about how we thought it was a girl until the vet went to spay her and realized she is a he).
I understand Scooter is living the good life. How do I know this? The kids get weekly letters from Scooter with photos of his big Minnesota life. He’s romping with the dog, has favorite spots in the house and will not go outside for fear of being shipped away to a far away land.
Even I’m happy for Scooter, The (now) Luckiest Cat on The Planet. Reading his letters makes me kind of think we should have kept him.
About Julia Roberts
I’ve always had cats, and I like them well enough. I’m pretty sure my cat Stella is clinically insane, psychotic even, but when I tried to ship her off to a farm my dad’s friend owns, my oldest son, Noah, nearly had a nervous breakdown.
She really scares me when she looks at me like that. She’s doing it right now. I think she *knows!*
Twitter Name: Im_Wendy
I’m tell you – she does know! CATS KNOW EVERYTHING.
Twitter Name: juliaroberts1
I TELL YOU (correction)
Twitter Name: juliaroberts1
I am also not a cat person. So glad it was a happy ending for all. And NO you should not have kept him.
Miri, you are so right! I did NOT need a cat.
Twitter Name: juliaroberts1
I’m just the opposite. Love cats…find most dogs annoying—perhaps because every person in my neighborhood has one and they let them bark outside ALL. DAY. LONG. In any case, you’re a wonderful, kindhearted person for working so hard to get Scooter a good home :)
Twitter Name: Izzymom
Well…I’m annoyed by barking dogs. I mean dogs that bark all the time. And well, our dog, since she’s been barking at the same cars, mail carrier car and dogs in the neighborhood.
Twitter Name: juliaroberts1
I used to have cats. Until it was determined my dad was allergic. Have had dogs since then. For some reason hubby and kids refuse to accept a cat into the household. I would love to go to a rescue and adopt one (or two.)
Your sister is a Saint. So are you for making it all happen :)
I wish I could say I did it for the cat (maybe a little) but I really did it for my son! The boy doesn’t need to have any more loss in his little life!
But you can still call me a Saint. I could get used to that.
But you know I’m kidding right. Kinda.
Twitter Name: juliaroberts1
You are still a SAINT in my eyes.
You could have given him the story my Mom gave me, ‘she is going the pound but they will find her a nice farm to live on’.
You found him a loving home.
Far too many cats out there needing such homes :( But this guy found nirvana!!
You rock.
I am a cat person now. I love my two big fellas with all my heart, and they love me with all their…stomachs. Some of us are cat people, and some of us…are not.
I’m glad your kids are. :)
My kids and their cat-loving selves! Someone has to love cats, right?
Twitter Name: juliaroberts1
I’m not a cat person either. I had two cats, brothers, and I swear they knew it. Acted more like dogs than any cats I’ve ever seen, bless their furry little hearts.
Twitter Name: SiobhanWolf
I will admit to liking a couple of friends’ cats. But then, I think they were humans stuck in cats. I wish I were kidding.
Twitter Name: juliaroberts1
I only like my cat because it thinks it’s a dog.
Confused cats FTW!
Only you would have a cat that thinks they’re a dog.
Twitter Name: juliaroberts1
I’m a single mother of three children. These children brought a cat home once, from their father’s apartment complex of all places. I mean, really, HE couldn’t have kept it for them there?! They were all under eight at the time (if memory serves me correctly) and so thriled to be doing a good deed. I did the same as you and found it a new home. I’ve always known my limits, and adding a cat to our lives was overage.
I came to this site to read Una’s post as I enjoy her elsewhere. Obviously, I read yours too. I then spent a good hour and a half picking through your posts at your other sites. I’ve spent a good portion of my life teaching children who have severe multiple developmental disabilities and currently teach children who are not living with their families for all the usual awful reasons. I hear you. I don’t really have words to express my feelings about your sharings. The best that I can offer is that I feel incredibly grounded and refreshed, both teacher-me and mother-me, by it and wanted to let you know I appreciate it. You and your family will be in my thoughts and prayers.
Aw, Nancy. See now? You went and made me cry a little. It could be the fact that you didn’t keep that cat all those years ago…
Or that you said some incredibly nice things and I truly appreciate it. As I sit here in the hospital with my immunosuppressed son to fight off infection and wonder if I should blog about the week long fight it took to get him here, you make me think I should.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me…they are the nicest things someone has told me in a long time.
Twitter Name: juliaroberts1
You’re welcome. I’m glad I read and I’m glad I wrote. Here’s hoping the blessings of Easter and promises of Spring are yours. And, as they say at the union meetings, keep fighting the good fight.
We have three cats of our own. We also foster kittens for the local Humane Society, so a mommy cat and litter of kittens come to stay while the kittens grow up. We live in constant … not fear, exactly; expectation? … of the next crazy thing our cats will do. One of our cats steals socks from the laundry, and carries them around the house in his mouth while meowing in a very odd way (his mouth being full, I don’t know how he meows at all). Another will eat ANYTHING left on the counter overnight, including raw potatoes. The third is afraid of heights, the outdoors, loud noises, and other people.
And I wouldn’t have it any other way! Call me crazy if you like, but I couldn’t live without cats in the house – it wouldn’t feel like home :)
And yes, they do know all your secrets.
See! You would be the one to KNOW they do know our secrets!
Twitter Name: juliaroberts1
I am so glad that you don’t have a cat…but wait, another sister does. Oh poo.
Twitter Name: Pat Cowan
I know! Scooter made her a Cat Lover!
Twitter Name: juliaroberts1
I’m a dog person. Cats are sneaky. Dogs are needy – I get that. Also I had a crrrrraaaazzzy aunt who was a cat person x 8 (cats). Now I have five dogs…hmmm, whose calling who crazy?
Twitter Name: raiseldaisel
But, but…five is so much less than 8! Not crazy yet!
Twitter Name: juliaroberts1