The Trouble with Cats

If you read this blog regularly — which seems increasingly less likely since it's updated far less frequently than it once was — you may not know that one of my roommates has gone off on an extended holiday, sublet his room to some guy off Craigslist, and left me his cat to take care of for however long he's gone.

Let me set this up slightly...

It's a three bedroom apartment. I've two roommates. #1 is the official owner of the cat. #2 is only here for part of the week but he's a cat person and will take care of the cat whenever he's here. I feed the cat when both of them are gone. I don't keep her company if I can help it.

Now that #1 is out of the equation, his temporary replacement is a guy who keeps his bedroom door shut even when he's not at home, which means this cat suddenly has no access to a significant portion of the world she's accustomed to: #1's bedroom. And she's a cat that craves human connection.

Consequently, when #2 is away for a large swath of the week, this cat comes scratching at my door.

She will meow and scratch at my door for however long it takes to get me to open the door. No matter what obscene hour of the night.

It will start off softly enough to ignore. Meow. Meow. Meow. Then grow a little more desperate with scratches at the door. Then her voice will raise. Meow. Meow. Meow. More scratches. More escalation. Meow. MEOW! MEOW!!!

If I let her in, she will curl up next to me for an hour or so. And then she'll meow to be let out.

An hour later, she'll be outside my door again insisting to be let in again...

I've had enough.

I know people like pets. I used to love pets growing up. But right now, I don't need this.

I realize I set a precedent by letting her into my personal space at all. I don't know if I can unset it, set a new boundary for her, but I'm going to try. It's enough already.