I think I’m one step away from becoming a crazy cat lady, and this is coming from someone who never even liked cats, that is until two little furballs came into my life at the end of 2010!
As I said, I wasn’t a cat lover, neither was Mr R. We were (are) dog people, me with certain conditions e.g. the dog can’t be too big and it can’t jump up at me or on me; for Mr R the bigger the dog the better (he grew up with an Alsation cross German Shepherd – I remember it from my newspaper delivery days, omg that dog was huge!). Either way, throughout our whole relationship we’d always said if we got a pet it would be a dog, but it wouldn’t be until we were probably retired because we didn’t think it fair to leave a dog alone all day whilst we’re out at work.
One autumn day, on our way home from a visit to my Father-in-law’s, we met up with a friend and his fairly new girlfriend for lunch. Talking over lunch, the new girlfriend said something about having a baby to which our friend, who is already a father of 2 from his previous marriage, replied they should get a cat first and see how they faired. I don’t know why but this triggered something for Mr R and I, and on the rest of our journey home we discussed getting a cat! A few days research later on the pros and cons of a cat, and against our “first love” a dog, we found a rescue place local to us that could have what we were looking for. We initially went to look at two cats, but the first swiped the lady looking after them and left her arm pouring with blood that we decided he definitely wasn’t for us, and the other cat refused to move from behind the radiator. Before we left we asked if there were any others and she said she had two brothers left from a litter of eight. The kittens and their mother had been left in a cardboard box outside a vets – why not just take them inside the vets?! She carried in these two black kittens (about 16 weeks old) and handed them to us, the one I had was a little wriggler and ended up falling down on to the seat between Mr R and I, the one Mr R was holding just snuggled up between his arm and chest. We both looked at each other and knew we wanted them, but neither of us said anything, just left saying we’d call if we were going to take them. As soon as we got in the car, we both said the same thing, they were coming home with us and a few days later they did.
23 months on I (we) cannot imagine not having them in our lives, they are so funny and cute and give so much love, they’re also remarkably calming to have around, even when they’re being little scamps and fighting with each other.
Back to my crazy cat lady syndrome… A friend of Mr R’s made a comment about me replacing having kids with the cats, which I didn’t take kindly to especially as his words were unfounded and really hurt being as he knew we’d had a miscarriage only months earlier. But I’ve come to realise that since the last miscarriage and as the childless months tick by, I do talk to them like they’re my children, telling them off when they do something naughty, worrying about them if I haven’t seen them for a while when they’re out “playing”, cuddling them and kissing their little heads goodnight before I go up to bed. I can’t believe I admitted that, but hopefully I’m not the only crazy cat lady and that you ladies on this same journey know what I’m talking about.
northernmum says
You have made me want a cat more! I am going to have to print this out and leave it around for the husband to read….
Tee says
Haha! You won’t regret it if you do get a cat (or 2!). I can’t imagine life without ours now and they’re definitely calming to have around.