For many people, the answer to that question is, "Right here!"
I love pictures and I think cameras are the coolest things ever, but for some reason, I don't own one, I never take photographs of anything, and it totally bums me out.
Like, right now for instance, my cats are acting like assholes in the living room. (They do this everyday.) They are constantly out looking for mischief. If they're not doing that they are laying around pruning themselves or eating or taking a big huge crap. They love to "mark" things, so I keep them confined to the laundy room (which is big and they have a little hiding place in there which they love). I have tried different things to curb their behavior, but nothing seems to work except for pretending like they are children and supervising them all the time. If they make a noise in the other room, I go check to see what they're up to. Sometimes one is on the counter or the table, sometimes one is batting at my purse that's hanging on the chair or trying to get into the storage cabinet (which has now been tied shut with string), they even get atop the fridge... And god, if I only had a camera so that I could capture their nefarious little expressions when they feel my presence near. They both sit perfectly still at attention and stare pointedly at me. If I move toward them slightly they get nervous and poise themselves to dart in any given direction if I begin to advance any further. They are starting to get brazen though and wait and stare me down until I get right next to them and then they take off.
Matilda is the black one, she's the absolute worst. She has that black cat thing going that every black cat seems to have - those eyes of utter defiance. Like "you may be bigger and stronger than me, but I'm much faster, so try and catch me mama"...ZOOM! Amelia, the gray one, is more like "alright alright you got me, just don't hurt me" when the truth is, I can't catch her for shit either. They both have me beat when it comes to speed. I can run and lunge but I will never come up with so much as a hairball in hand.
You see, my cats don't like human beings at all. They are inherently terrified by the thought of being touched by us. I adopted them from a lady who had like fifty cats. (No joke, she was the lady who lived in a cat-house...very smelly.) People probably think my cats are abused because that's how p-noid they are. But they've never been abused. They never got any attention as kittens, so I think that's a part of it. We adopted them at 4 months (or so...) and they had never been around people much. They are sisters. All they need is eachother. They love eachother, hug eachother, clean eachother, sleep near eachother, play with eachother, fight with eachother, and that is all they seem to need. The presence of a human is required for one reason. To feed. If not for that, the relationship would be useless for them. What do I expect? They're fucking cats. But I love them so damn much. It's almost like an abusive relationship. Hahahaaaaa!
We were looking forward to having loveable, snuggly kittens who would occasionally annoy us, but would be healthy and well adjusted. It's been sort of rough to realize that they are extremely withdrawn when it comes to being dealt with physically and that they certainly do not feel like loving and cuddling us. :( I said, oh well, these are the cats god gave us (I say god because, it's just, well where else would cats-or anything for that matter-come from? Honestly, I don't know - we came from the stars... but whatever, "God" just seems to work, ya know?) so we'll just have to love them and live with it anyway. I couldn't bear the thought of giving them to someone else (who they would just torment like they torment me). This is the way it's gonna be.
They are really funny though and very, very pretty little girls. But bad I say. Bad to the bone.
Note:
As I was typing this, they both ceased making devilish mischief in the living room and have each laid down on opposite sides of the computer and are kind of "hanging out with me"... you know? I think this might be a first...
I have 2 cats May-May and Jackie and they are sisters also, we got them when they were 5wks old. My girlfriends cat had them and we went over to pick one out and she had 2 left..my husband was like no, just one..well she had a 5yr old boy who was "throwing" them against the wall...Me and my daughter started crying and my husband said, "Get both of the babies and we're taking them now"..We had to bottle feed them for almost 2wks...anyway they both had 5kittens a piece last Saturday-10hrs apart from one another. Jackie was always the aggressive one, but May May has took to stealing Jackies babies...May May is not mean to them, she just seems to want all the kittens and Jackie has not fought her on this in the least. At first I would return Jackie her babies, but than last night I thought maybe the 2 sisters understand each other and maybe there's a reason for May Mays'behavior. Maybe Jackie has like postpartum, or maybe she doesn't have enough milk..who knows. It's all working out and Jason says we can keep one :)
Posted by: sandy at May 29, 2003 08:26 PMMaria
you definitely need to get a camera, you seem to really love your cats, so preserve the moment :) We took like a whole roll of film on the babies last night...
Wow. Kittens. Congratulations. Can I have one? lol. No really, I am thinking of adopting another for good measure (I will not become a cat lady...I will not become a cat lady...I will not...)
My manboyfriendrob says "why can't we have cats that love us?" Sorry buddy, it's just too damn bad, they're mean so deal with it. LOL! We would like to get a cat who is friendly, maybe to balance things out a little.
I'm definitely going to invest in a camera. Even if it's disposable. I must share their e-vil eyes with the world. Hahahaa.
Posted by: Maria at May 29, 2003 09:21 PMI stumbled onto this site while doing some research for my students (they have a project on examining personal websites and seeing what people say about themselves) and was extremely impressed with your writing. What great stories. I really hate these sites (I really do) because I think at times that can be too juvenile, too "personal," or possess too "much" eye candy. This is definitely a quality effort. And if you don't mind, I may just stop by every once in a while and say hello.
Take care,
Banzai
Wow. What a huge compliment. Thank you so much. Your readership is highly appreciated!
Posted by: Maria at May 29, 2003 09:37 PMHi Maria. I "met" you at the Boycott Hollywood site, and have been coming to your site since then and reading. I've really enjoyed reading what you have to say. As for the cats, take some pics! I LOVE cats!! I have/had 4. See, we had Angel for a couple of years, and decided to get another kitty. So we got Chloe. When Chloe was old enough to be fixed, the week I was going to get it done, Angel had ear mites and needed to get that taken care of. So the next week, I was going to make an appt to get Chloe fixed, and Chloe ended up getting a broken leg. So, 6 weeks and $500 later, I went to get her fixed, and she went into heat and got knocked up! So, she had 4 kittens, and we were able to get rid of 2, so we kept the others, Simon and Sami (Sami is a girl). Well, my dh got laid off, and found a job in a different town, so we moved into an apartment and NO CATS ALLLOWED!! So my parents have Angel, my inlaws have Simon, and my bro in law has Chloe and Sami. Well, Chloe was hit by a car and is no longer w/ us. After I got her fixed, she really got weird. We are buying a house and will be getting Angel back, and maybe the others. I've missed them TERRIBLY!! I love them a lot. Well, sorry to make it so long, just wanted to say HI.
Posted by: Stephanie at May 30, 2003 10:28 PMThanks for reading Stephanie. It's funny to think that I adopted readership from BH, considering the circumstances...:)
That's sad about Chloe. I had a *black cat* named Jose who got hit by a car and broke his jaw but lived. So I spent all my christmas money getting his jaw wired back together against the advice of people who told me I should just kill him. (Obviously, that person didn't know me too well...) But a couple months after Jose was back to normal he took off and never came back. He was a free spirit though. A bad boy. I wonder what became of him...it's amazing how much you can love an animal, but they are still just domesticated animals who can't always truly appreciate that connection, though other animals really can. Those ones are so cool.
I'll definately try to get some pictures up of Amelia & Matilda soon. They are so cute and NAUGHTY.
Posted by: Maria at June 2, 2003 11:05 PMMy dh didn't want us to pay money like that to fix Chloe's leg. But I'm very emotional and attached to my animals. And so were the kids (they were 5&7 at the time). The kids would've been DEVASTATED if we had Chloe put down. Wasn't even an option!! :-)
Posted by: Stephanie at June 2, 2003 11:17 PMMy funky cat is 18 years old. I got her from the shelter when she was about 6 months.... she was hours from being put to sleep.
She's kinda "not there" much anymore. She's thin and frail... she still eats like a pig... she's been through so freaking much with me. She's never asked for more than a good meal, a place to crap, and a warm bed to sleep on at night.
I know she won't be here too much longer. The vet says she's fine "considering". It sucks. I don't like letting go or saying goodbye.
Her name is "Lincoln".
...not for any special reason other than when we got her she was so skinny and tubular she looked like a sausage link and she became "Linky" which morphed into "Lincoln".
She was hit by a car when we first got her. She's had a bum paw ever since... but that was 17 years ago and it didn't really slow her down much at all. She's tried and true. She's a cuddler, and it's just gonna plain suck the big banana when it's her time to go.
Thanks for letting me ramble..............
Posted by: Chosesinconnues at June 18, 2003 10:05 PMAwwww. Linky. That's the hard part about animals. They just can't stick it out as long as us humans, so eventually, we are destined to have to say goodbye...:o(
You can ramble on my blog as much as you want, "everrrytime, alla de time" (as my friend Giovanni likes to say).
Posted by: Maria at June 19, 2003 12:09 PMCats seem to know exactly when you're talking about them and are determined to prove you wrong in whatever you are saying. I could definitely relate to the two cats coming around to visit as soon as you posted about how antisocial they are. There is no being more contrarian than a cat (I have five, and the oldest one is fifteen years old). They will always do exactly the opposite of whatever you predict, except if you're trying to use reverse psychology on them. They have that figured out, too.
Posted by: The Silicon Alley Cat at June 21, 2003 02:41 PM