I am convinced...

Jul 14, 2007 08:39

...that at least one circle of hell involves cleaning eternally dirty cat litter. It is a chore that I despise.

I grew up in a dog family. We were not cat people at all. When I met mswewh, she had 4 cats. We met and made a connection before I ever set foot in her house, so the cats only figured into the equation after the fact. At that time, she had:

  • Spotless, a female grey domestic shorthair whom she inherited from her sister, and who had some "issues" -- we found her a good home before we moved to California because we didn't think she would handle the move well at all and she was getting older so we didn't think it was fair to make her deal with a big move.
  • Spike, a little runt of a male black domestic shorthair, who had lots of health problems. He was inherited from her neighbors who really didn't know how to take care of a kitten and didn't treat him very well as a result. Spike moved to CA with us, and unfortunately was killed right before we got married.
  • Bart was like Spike's big brother, a giant of a cat, another black domestic shorthair. Bart was dropped off by someone near my MIL's house and he ended up adopted by W. Spike would follow him around everywhere and play with him. Bart was like a miniature panther with a gentle heart of gold. Those of you who have been reading this blog know he was killed earlier this year in a freak garage door accident (yeah, it sounds kinda funny, but it was really, really awful and disturbing).
  • Jack, a female black domestic shorthair, was from a stray's litter in Florida that W's sister's family found. They sent Jack to W. She didn't spend enough time with her mother as a kitten so she has some peculiar habits that kittens eventually grow out of. She's also got a bit of attitude, but she's mellowing out in her old age.

I never cared much for Spotless (or Spotty as we called her). I loved Spike and Bart. Losing both of them really tore me up. Jack is very much take her or leave her. She keeps to herself mostly, so we don't really have as strong a bond with her, even after all these years. Now, of course, we have Hiro.

Anyway, pregnant women aren't supposed to mess with cat litter, so I had to take over that particular chore when W first got pregnant with G. Between breast feeding and getting pregnant with M, then breast feeding again, I've been stuck with this abominable task ever since. Of course, we're now past the point where W can't touch the litter and she does handle it every now and then, like when I am out of town, but in general day-in-day-out, it falls on me.

Now, we walked a neighbor's dog the other day, and I have to say that scooping a litter pan now seems preferable to picking up randomly dropped doggy sh*t in a plastic bag, but it's still an awful task and definitely worthy of a circle of hell. Probably the one people go to for cruelty to animals. };>

litter, spike, cats, cat litter, spotty, bart, spotless, jack

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