Monday, January 8th
Oh boy do I have a vent blog for you!!! Here's a little story about a nosy neighbor and a cat.
Pepe has always been an outdoor cat. As a kitten, we tried to keep him inside, but once he got the taste of sweet Washington air, he was not about to be restricted to the confines of an apartment. This worked well for us, no litter box, and a cat who came home to chill after being gone all day.
Well, once Colby came around, that all changed a bit. Pepe came home less and less and seemed to find other apartments to sleep at and get fed. I have watched him get nummy scraps from the neighbors, have let him in from the snow seeing no trace of water on him, and watched him grow fatter and fatter despite the fact that he eats very little of the food we offer him. It did make us sad, though, that he wasn't coming home to us at night anymore and we recently started talking about the possibility of finding him another home that didn't have a 1 year old who would torment him.
Fast forward to the end of December. I was gone for 2 weeks visiting family, and Clint came home for 4 days during that time. Pepe came in, ate, and wanted out immediately, as he always does, even though it was obvious that Colby wasn't around to pester him.
The day after New Years I get a knock on my door from our upstairs neighbor. Not entirely unusual, since she has come down before for various neighborly reasons. She informed me that she had let Pepe in during the time we were gone, fed him, and let him curl up by the heater. She told me that she had to cut his collar off of him because it was strangling him (she thought because it had tightened from being caught in a bush, I think because he's getting fat) and was offering to pay me back for it. I didn't take the money because I appreciated that she had taken care of our cat. The conversation should've ended there, but she proceeded to lecture me on why cats shouldn't be outside and that he was shivering, starving, etc. I said I felt bad, but that he is always outside and we couldn't find him to bring him down with us when we left, so oh well, he's a cat and he'll be fine.
The next day Pepe shows up, eats a couple of bites of food and wants out again. I ran into the neighbor who asked me if Pepe had come home and when I told her that, as usual, he had, she breathed a sigh of relief, as if she had been terrified that he wouldn't come home. I told her that he has been coming home very little since Colby was born and that honestly we weren't going to take tons of effort to go find him and everything since Colby is our #1 priority. I think I put it, "It's either Colby or Pepe, and obviously we chose Colby," not meaning that we didn't care about our cat or that we were going to neglect him, but that we're not going to worry much about it. He'll come home when and if he wants to. She told me not to take him to the animal shelter because they'd kill him and I said that if we were going to get rid of him, it'd be to a home.
You'd think that'd be the end of it, right?
Not so much.
She comes up to me the next day as I'm unloading the car and tells me that she talked to a friend of hers who would like to adopt an adult cat. At first, I thought that'd be a good idea, until she mentioned that Pepe would become an indoor cat. That didn't sit well with me, and I told her I'd have to talk to Clint about it, knowing full well that neither of us were going to give him up to this lady's friend. I felt like I was being backed into a corner because she kept insisting that Pepe was not being treated well.
The following day she comes over and gives me a phone number to her friend, saying that she wants my cat. She tells me that I need to keep him locked in a room for the weekend and she'd come over and meet him to make sure he's the kind of cat she wants. I explained to her that as a matter of fact, my brother wanted to take Pepe and that he lives on lots of land where Pepe'd be able to run around and come home to a baby-free place. She got defensive and said, "Well what's the point in that? He's a cat, he can't be outdoors. It's too cold." I said, "Exactly, he's a cat. He has fur. He likes being outside and we aren't comfortable giving him to a home that is going to keep him inside." She said, "Well, there are ways to make him into an indoor cat, and domesticated animals cannot be outside. They cannot survive." I told her that he wasn't a domesticated cat, that he had always gone outside. The argument went back and forth like this for a while, and when it was obvious I wasn't backing down, she left.
I was, and still am, pissed off. I thought she was being nice at first, but then I realized that she was acting very passive agressively, and was pretty much bullying me into thinking that she was right and we were wrong. Where does she get off telling me what to do with my cat? I don't care that she comes from California where more people probably keep their cats indoors. I don't care that she keeps her cats inside all day long. Pepe would get into her friend's house, go crazy, and shit everywhere. He'd be miserable. Plus, they'd probably lock him in a cage for a day or two, and slowly let him out into a room or two, and then the whole house so that he "forgets" the outdoors. I think that's cruel, I'm sorry. It is absolutely none of her f*ing business where my cat lives and how he is raised. I'm absolutely livid. What's next? Is she going to call CPS on me because every time she's been over my house has been a mess? Wouldn't that be dandy? Ugh.
I think what makes this situation even more unbearable is that I'm already sick and f*ing tired of living in an apartment. I know you can have nosey neighbors anywhere, but at least when you're in a house, they aren't living upstairs. And if they are, you're probably related to them and can just tell them to mind their own business or ground them.
So Pepe has found a new home with Corey. Sara renamed him Sir Pepe Charles Meowsworthy III, which I think is awesome. He hasn't completely warmed up to them yet, but at least he's coming home and laying around instead of being gone all the time. And it has, after all, only been 3 days. I'm sure he'll be back to his snuggly self in no time. Corey's living where Pepe first lived and it seems like he remembers it because he's going to all the same spots he did when we were there. I think he'll be happier there, and it makes us happy knowing that he has a good place to come home to!
Anyway, thanks for letting me rant and rave. I can't wait to get out of here!!!!
