Cats

My mother has a cat phobia. She's not as bad now as she used to be, but when I was younger, a cat coming near her would just about cause her to start hyperventilating. She doesn't know why. Anyway, as a result, we never had cats when I was a kid.

The first pet I got when I was 'on my own' was a cat. I named him Harley, so I could tell people I had a Harley. I know, it's one of those jokes that pretty stupid after the first time, but cats never keep the name they start with, so that's ok. He was called all kinds of stuff, usually Huck or Huckleberry. Chuck is shortened version of Charley, right? So I figured Huck was short for Harley.

At the time I got Harley I was living with a guy who was a major stoner. This guy smoked a lot of dope. His girlfriend did too and her two roomies did also. They were on a serious nuevo-hippy trip, those three girls. Their cat had kittens and I mentioned that I was thinking of getting a cat so they gave me one of the kittens. Harley was just what I wanted, a male grey tabby. Grey tabbys are just the epitome of cats to me, for some reason. Harley was great cat. His kittenhood was odd. We had lots of people coming by the house so Huck got lots of socialization. He also got lots of dope smoke blown in his face. It's amazing what stoned people find funny.

He was with me for a long time and we had some adventures. When I got Jake, my first ACD, Huckleberry made sure he was raised with proper respect for cats. Jake used to lick Harley's face. It was cute. They are both gone now. Harley just didn't come home. He was happy to the end though, that counts for something.

The reason for this cat post is because we have a cat problem here. When we first moved here we noticed a cat that hung out in this neighborhood. It was a big long haired calico that had one fucked up eye. We started calling it Eyeball. It ran away whenever anybody came near it and it fought with our cats. Eyeball was a bad cat to us. I blamed Eyeball for the cat shit that was constantly showing up in the gravel of our driveway.

A few weeks ago I came home from work and Eyeball was in the driveway again. She seemed to be skinnier than she used to be. I crouched down and made kitty-come-here noises. Eyeball approached me! She came up and I petted her and picked her. She wasn't so evil at all. I got some cat food and fed her. Now she comes by often. I don't know where she sleeps but I suspect it's closer to our house than it used to be. She meows for food every morning before I go to work and at night when I get home. No big deal, I don't mind feeding her at all. The problem is that she does not get along with our actual cat, Snickers. They hiss at each other whenever they get near each other and Eyeball chases Snickers under the house all the time. This upsets Doro. She claims Eyeball is diseased and has worms and other parasites. She really needs to open her heart to Eyeball, because the Eyeball cat is really sweet, unlike Snickers, who is mean and scratches me. Often. Eyeball's eye does leak a bit, but I told Doro those are tears she is shedding, because the world is so sad and she's so sensitive. I don't think Doro agrees with me.

Doro thinks I am being so nice to Eyeball because of an ugly event that happened a few months ago. I wrote it up but I never posted it here. I suppose I will do that now.

( You might not want to read this if you like cats. )

So, Doro is of the opinion that that incident is the cause of my current niceness to Eyeball. I suppose she might be right.

Cats

My mother has a cat phobia. She's not as bad now as she used to be, but when I was younger, a cat coming near her would just about cause her to start hyperventilating. She doesn't know why. Anyway, as a result, we never had cats when I was a kid.

The first pet I got when I was 'on my own' was a cat. I named him Harley, so I could tell people I had a Harley. I know, it's one of those jokes that pretty stupid after the first time, but cats never keep the name they start with, so that's ok. He was called all kinds of stuff, usually Huck or Huckleberry. Chuck is shortened version of Charley, right? So I figured Huck was short for Harley.

At the time I got Harley I was living with a guy who was a major stoner. This guy smoked a lot of dope. His girlfriend did too and her two roomies did also. They were on a serious nuevo-hippy trip, those three girls. Their cat had kittens and I mentioned that I was thinking of getting a cat so they gave me one of the kittens. Harley was just what I wanted, a male grey tabby. Grey tabbys are just the epitome of cats to me, for some reason. Harley was great cat. His kittenhood was odd. We had lots of people coming by the house so Huck got lots of socialization. He also got lots of dope smoke blown in his face. It's amazing what stoned people find funny.

He was with me for a long time and we had some adventures. When I got Jake, my first ACD, Huckleberry made sure he was raised with proper respect for cats. Jake used to lick Harley's face. It was cute. They are both gone now. Harley just didn't come home. He was happy to the end though, that counts for something.

The reason for this cat post is because we have a cat problem here. When we first moved here we noticed a cat that hung out in this neighborhood. It was a big long haired calico that had one fucked up eye. We started calling it Eyeball. It ran away whenever anybody came near it and it fought with our cats. Eyeball was a bad cat to us. I blamed Eyeball for the cat shit that was constantly showing up in the gravel of our driveway.

A few weeks ago I came home from work and Eyeball was in the driveway again. She seemed to be skinnier than she used to be. I crouched down and made kitty-come-here noises. Eyeball approached me! She came up and I petted her and picked her. She wasn't so evil at all. I got some cat food and fed her. Now she comes by often. I don't know where she sleeps but I suspect it's closer to our house than it used to be. She meows for food every morning before I go to work and at night when I get home. No big deal, I don't mind feeding her at all. The problem is that she does not get along with our actual cat, Snickers. They hiss at each other whenever they get near each other and Eyeball chases Snickers under the house all the time. This upsets Doro. She claims Eyeball is diseased and has worms and other parasites. She really needs to open her heart to Eyeball, because the Eyeball cat is really sweet, unlike Snickers, who is mean and scratches me. Often. Eyeball's eye does leak a bit, but I told Doro those are tears she is shedding, because the world is so sad and she's so sensitive. I don't think Doro agrees with me.

Doro thinks I am being so nice to Eyeball because of an ugly event that happened a few months ago. I wrote it up but I never posted it here. I suppose I will do that now.

( You might not want to read this if you like cats. )

So, Doro is of the opinion that that incident is the cause of my current niceness to Eyeball. I suppose she might be right.