Nice Kitties....

I warned my friend that she would end up in my blog if she asked me to feed her cats, but she didn't listen. Oh well. She reads my blog and knows that I don't have cats and don't enjoy being "responsible" for "anything". Actually it was two cats belonging to my friend B. and her fiance G. (not their real initials). I knew they must have been desperate to ask me for help.

G. showed me around their large two story apartment and introduced me to the cats. I don't remember their names so lets call them black & white cat and grey & white cat. I learned where their food was and how to refill their kitty water fountain. The water fountain was actually really cool - it's a large dome attached to a bowl and the water is constantly circulated. Most cats I have known would have overturned and destroyed this device in minutes but these cats actually used it.

I only had to go by once a day to feed the cats and pick up the mail. It's a small building so the mail is all left in a pile by the front door. I didn't really want to go through all of it, so I just took all of it up to the apartment - they could sort it out later. One thing you should know about these cats is that they shed more hair than most cats have. Think about the most cat hair you have seen on a sofa and then triple it and you would be close. Now I understand why B. said it wouldn't be a good idea to bring the cats to my place. She had said that they would jump up on the furniture and that black & white cat was in her "rebellious teenage phase".

These cats didn't seem to want anything to do with me. They didn't run down stairs to eat when I came in, in fact I never saw them eat at all. They seemed to be afraid of me- I tried to be nice and kneel down to pet them. I guess I didn't spend enough time over there hanging out for them to want to come and sit in my lap. These cats were being cautious and aloof like I had never seen. Usually when you feed a cat for a while they become your best friend immediately.
Grey & white cat was a little friendlier- he follwed me around a little but he was probably just keeping an eye on me for his owners. I figured they just didn't like me because I am not asian, like B. and G. Yes, these were unfriendly, racist cats.

One day I had trouble finding black & white cat but I wanted to be sure she was ok, so I called her and went upstairs looking all over. Finally she appeared from behind some boxes in the upstaris hall way. I may have awoken her from the looks of it. When I went to say hi she acted like she didn't know me. She did the little kitty batting with the paw move- I went to try to pet her to show her I was friendly, but it was too late- she got me on the hand. My reflexes aren't what they once were. At least I wasn't scratched on the face- but what kind of thanks is that for feeding and watering these cats all week? And cleaning out the kitty litter? All I did was try to be nice to these cats and they treated me like an intruder.

I still went back to feed the cats the few days that were left after the incident. Grey and white cat seemed a bit friendlier maybe, but cat who scratched me avoided me as much as possible. Maybe she thought I would want to get revenge.

Everything turned out just fine in the end. I really didn't mind feeding the cats at all. I like to be able to help out friends in need. Unlike the cats, B and G were very appreciative and took me out for a nice lunch to thank me for my effort. I'm actually not so bad at taking care of animals - I don't know why more people don't ask me to do it.