I think people have cats as pets because they think cats are more independent, more self-sufficient and are much less troublesome than dogs. That’s what I had thought too. Not so much anymore…

In October of 2008, during a very unnecessary (and absolutely heartbreaking) trip to the Humane Society, I found Coco (well, at the time her name was Kay-Kay). She was adorable; sticking her little paw through her cage, looking up at me with those “please take me home” eyes. I couldn’t resist. (Yes, I am a 23 year old cat owner. It’s ok; you can insert the crazy old cat lady joke here).  Much to my roommates’ dismay, I brought her home (my mom insisted that if I didn’t, she would).

And then she peed on my bed.  Lovely.

A few days later and she was litter box trained, thank God, and things were running smoothly.  My roommates loved her, she was so cute and cuddly and we loved playing with her.

And then she fell down a hole.  That’s right.  A hole.  Well, a heating vent duct actually.  As my apartment had been recently renovated, there were no covers over our heating vents, there were just wide-open holes.  Of course, we had covered them, but in her “I’m a fun little kitten” inquisitiveness, she pushed aside our temporary cover while chasing a ball of foil and whoops, like Alice, down the hole she went.  Hysterics and a call to the fire department ensued.  Eventually (with no help from the fire department might I add) my roommates, my friend who was visiting and I were able to extract her from the maze of heating ductwork spiderwebbing the basement ceiling.  $200, a 4am trip to the emergency room at the MSPCA-Angell Animal Hospital, a hellish bathtub de-sooting later and we were back to “normal.”

And then, a month later, she had to wear this as a result of licking herself too much after she was spayed:

And then I had to buy her these:

The LeBistro water dish (the blue water cooler-looking thing) was bought when I started spending more time away from the apartment and when she started overturning her more traditional water dish, getting water everywhere (one night, she flipped over her water dish three times in a row).  This one makes sure she gets enough water, but she’s still managed to spill it, hence the duct tape.  The LeBistro automatic feeder (the HUGE, cream colored contraption) came when she, due to daylight savings time, started waking me up at 5am to feed her.  I could have just filled her bowl up at night so that she would have food in the morning, but, unlike most cats that have some common sense and self control when it comes to eating, she will finish an entire bowl of food (no matter how much or how little) before leaving the room (no wonder she’s 12lbs).

She’s a little pain in the butt sometimes, but we love her.  And now that we have a laser pointer, she’s quite the entertainer too.

So as it turns out cats (or at least Coco) aren’t as independent or self-sufficient or as trouble-free as I had thought.  Here I was getting a cat thinking that yeah, she’d be a little work, but she’s definitely been a challenge.  It’s funny how things work out that way, the way you never think they would.  I guess life never really turns out the way you think it will, and if crazy little Coco isn’t an example of that, then I don’t know what is…

 

Got any crazy pet stories you want to share??

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