Music I chose is never random and if you listen to this song you will know why I picked this particular version of the song...enjoy and Smile :)
To be fair I am talking about my daughter's cat Oreo not the cookie. The only way the cat would cause weight gain is if he was in your arms when you stepped on the scale. The cookies you might as well twist open and instead of licking the cream filling just use it as glue to paste to your hips :)
But this musing is about the cat. My daughter hounded and harassed for a cat for as long as she was able to talk lol! But we were a dog family. I had never had a cat and just saw evidence of cat ownership that turned me off. Also in a brand new house, our neighbour had a cat and their kitchen cupboards were completely destroyed by the cats clawing, furniture was shredded, curtains and rods hung at unintended angles. Cats dug up flower beds and Lord knows there was no training a cat! I wasn't comfortable with the declawing business and undecided about keeping a strictly indoor cat. So I put her off and we stuck with dogs. We went through Alphy and Killarney and were enjoying Shaggy when the girl was 13 years old and I decided I couldn't take any more begging and we took the plunge.
I have to admit that I thoroughly enjoyed preparing for this birthday surprise even though her brother and I had decided that it would be best if she picked out her own cat. Okay, that is only partly accurate. It seems that the girls birthday did not correspond with a kitten population explosion. There wasn't any available for us to choose from. But that didn't stop the festivities surrounding the surprise. From a friend at work, I got an amazing recipe for Kitty Litter Cake. It is served with a litter scoop in a litter box (clean and new of course) and it even had pieces of Tootsie Rolls in it to represent...well you know. It turned out great. If you want the recipe let me know and I'll dig it up...lol! She got cat books, cat toys, and a collar. Everything but the animal.
We spent the next month or so calling and visiting Animal Shelters and Cat Rescue Facilities. We put the word out to every one we knew that we were looking for a kitten. We scoured the paper and community bulletin boards. Eventually we found Oreo at the Oakville Humane Society. He wasn't exactly a kitten, in fact his age was unknown but he was on his ninth life. Most people were after kittens (yeah, us too) and this poor guy also had medical issues holding him back. He came with an ECG and suggestion of follow up appointments and medication for his heart condition. Perfect I thought, if this whole cat thing doesn't work out...maybe he won't last long. I know that's not very nice but on the positive side, we were giving him a shot at a life - prolonging the ninth and final hour. I never told the girl any of that, she fell in love with the animal. But we weren't allowed to take him home until we brought our dog Shaggy back to meet with Oreo so the staff could assess if the cat would be safe.
Shaggy meet Oreo....Shaggy was about a year old and full of piss and vinegar. We got to the Shelter and were put in an office to await the coming of Oreo. Shaggy pissed on every good smell he could...man, dogs can be so embarrassing. :) He was mid-stream when the lady came in cradling Oreo in her arms. Shaggy started barking, Oreo's fur stood up on end and in the chaos of the boy trying to hold the dog back, the lady told him to let the dog go and she released the cat. The cat took off, running around the office the dog was in hot pursuit. I thought it was a hilarious sight. The girl looked close to tears - cursing the dog, because he was probably destroying her chance for cat ownership in long succession of yaps. The cat went under a chair, stopped and turned to face the white fluff with the big mouth! Shaggy came to a screeching halt, sliding on the wet tile floor until he was nose to nose with the cat, still barking. After several moments the woman picked up the cat and put him in a box and into Lydia's arms. I was stunned. "What did you just see that makes you think they will get along?" When the cat stopped running/playing and dog took heed and stopped his pursuit. The cat won and will be the dominant in the house. Make sure the cat has a place to escape from the dog and hide your breakables and valuables. "Wait! I've changed my mind" I wanted to scream. One look at that sweet little girls doeful eyes and I unlocked the car and let them all. Two kids with an animal each!
It really didn't end up being as bad as I thought. Kitchen cupboards, curtains were safe and remained intact. Can't say the same for the back of the couch, the screens in the windows and the wallpaper border in my room that he used as a ladder to get to my window. We kept Oreo as an indoor cat, partly because he seemed so frightened of the vastness of the outside world. The cat had the run of the house, he went anywhere he wanted, the top of the kitchen cupboard was one of his favourite spots. I hated that he was probably walking on the counters to get there. My bed became one of his favourite sleeping spots partly due to the fact that the dog alternated between sleeping with the girl and then moving to the boys bed.
It was probably a month or so later that I got my first sinus infection. I didn't have a cold and initially because of the tooth pain I thought it was a dental issue. Not a fan of dental work, I was relieved to be sent on to the doctor to deal with a sinus issue. Antibiotics was the course of treatment and was effective. Several months later, I came down with the same tooth ache and went straight to the doctor. Sure enough, it was sinuses again. The third time it happened I started to question why this was happening with such frequency of late and never associated with a cold or any other symptom and also a severe infection. We put it down to age and changes that occur with the body. It's true, I was aging....lol! I was on antibiotics 3-5 times a year and not too impressed about it because I never cared for taking medication.
I got pretty good at self-diagnosing myself and calling up the doctors office to tell them it was another sinus infection. Then with no typical symptoms or any symptoms at all, I woke up to find my hearing going. Antibiotics were quickly prescribed but by the time the first two rounds had been finished I was about 90% deaf. I continued to go to work and learned all the tricks to get by in the hearing world. I even picked up some lip reading :). By the time I got to a hearing specialist, I was going half-crazy with the silence and frustrated with not knowing the cause or treatment to fix. In the end, he did something to drain my ears so I could hear, but I did suffer some permanent loss for the experience. And it started with infected sinuses that moved to infect the ears and cause fluid to collect.
Well, the kids were older and the boy was becoming more particular about his appearance and was bothered by the fur coating his dress pants that he had to wear to school and work. The dog was non-shedding so all the blame lay on the cat. The boy started up a campaign to find the cat another home and was not above bribing people with a free lunch if they would just come and take Oreo away. Everyone loved the cat - he really was a good cat and cute! But it was in vain. And in the end the boy left home before the cat - he went to university.
But then I took up the campaign to find the cat a new home. I had been suffering with sinus infections for nearly 10 years when someone suggested that maybe it was not age (woohoo! go on...you have my attention!) but rather an allergy to cat fur/dander? So I started to think about it and realized that the onset of the infections not only began with the arrival of the cat but infections seemed to follow periods of me being home and off work. Christmas holidays, March break, Easter, Summer and other such leaves. So I picked up where the boy left off and pressed to have a new home found for the cat. I let the girl chose where the cat should go so she would feel comfortable with the decision. But, I don't think she put too much effort into the task until I reminded her that my health was more important than her cat ownership and she could have all the cats she wanted when she moved out especially if she never wanted me to visit...lol!
A home wasn't to be found for a 10+ year old cat with potential heart issues - yeah right! His heart was just fine...or maybe the love we shared fixed it? Either way, we resorted to enlisting the Humane Society to find him a good home. For the girl, life in kitty heaven was preferable to living in a home were he wasn't well treated. He was a good cat and I am glad he was a part of our life.
I haven't had a sinus infection since, so I think we can say with certainty that it was allergies to fur/dander. And I suspect that dog fur would cause the same reaction for me. My dogs have all primarily had hair not fur. At least the dogs I have had as I have aged...grrr :)
Much loved and missed
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