Outside Cat

Sep

It has been coming. I could feel it. Both of our animals, Sassy (dog) and Ozzie (cat) are quite neglected these days since Belén arrived. Sassy is a sport about it and is content to just hang out with us with little attention, but I could feel the cat growing more pissed off. Ozzie is such an expressive cat that you know where you stand with him. He meows when he needs something and is a little neurotic in that he needs you to show him he has food in his dish and sits there and meows until you do so. When I am holding the baby, I ignore him and I know this pisses him off.

Until tonight, he took it and acted out only once when I accidentally bought diet food instead of his normal Iams variety. At this time he sprayed in our little office area where I am writing this from. I told Andy that we could buy him new food but if he acted out again, he was out, literally.

He has not been happy, but he has been fine until tonight. I had just put Belén in her crib to go to bed and was busy folding laundry and putting it away in her closet. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the cat quickly run across the room, which was strange for him since he is quite fat and does not often move quickly these days. I went to see what was going on in the corner and picked up a book that was laying on the floor. Something touched me and I quickly dropped the book thinking it was a spider. When I flipped the book over, I realized that the felt Santa hat that was glued to the cartoon duck on the cover of the book was red and yellow rather than the standard red and white Santa hat variety. It wasn’t a spider but a droplet of cat pee that had touched my arm. I am pretty sure I loudly exclaimed, “Dammit!” And then, “Aaaaandy come here please!”

Andy agreed that it seemed like cat pee and quickly said, “well, I think he is an outdoor cat now.” He disappeared for awhile and then came back a few minutes later with carpet cleaning spray.

Part of me feels really bad. Ozzie is a really cool cat. He just needs a small amount of attention and to live in an environment where he is not threatened (he lived in a house where there were a lot of rescued dogs while we were in China and didn’t like that.) I am not a cat person (Andy brought him to the relationship) but I like Ozzie. I like him, but that does not mean I am going to put up with his acts of aggression now that we have a nicer home and a baby.

So I think this means his home is outdoors now. It is going to be a difficult transition as he loves his perch in the window and designated seats around the house. He is declawed which originally made me concerned with his health as we have a tough neighborhood for cats due to other tough cats and raccoons. Now I am more concerned with the coyote that the neighbor saw three streest over and the “Lost Cat” signs that have been in the neighborhood lately. But, I have always told myself I would not let an animal ruin our house.

The other option is to give Ozzie away. Do you know a nice person or couple who could use a little companionship in their lives? Ozzie is a large, entertaining, affectionate cat. I haven’t sold the cat like I should, but he honestly is a great cat. Ask anyone who has met him. If you have a heater vent, he will sit in front of it for 23 hours a day, happy as a clam. He literally carries on a conversation with you. If you say, “hey Ozzie” he then says, “Meow.” Then if you say something else and then pause, he will repeat his, “Meow” reply. It is really cute. I am serious, if you know someone, please let me know. He is declawed and healthy and comes with multiple cat beds to place in front of heater vents. Otherwise, he is going to need to grow a thick coat of fur because he will be an outdoor cat this winter.