Cat Barbershop

A few years ago I decided that I wanted a cat, because I remember how much I liked having one as a kid. My childhood cat, named Flower, sat with you when you were sick and she would race us to the mailbox. But my dad is not a big pet person so when I asked about getting a cat again he made it clear that it was out of the question. I decided that if I did get a cat, I would want it to be a very young kitten so that I could take care of it and it would love me even more because it would think that I was its mother. Right.

So the day my boyfriend's sister found a tiny, black and white kitten in the parking lot at her work I thought it was fate. I was out of school and work at the time so I took care of it, staying up all night to bottle feed it every 3 hours. I even had to teach her how to go to the bathroom (eww) since I guess that is not an instinct that a kitten is born with (why, god, why?).

We named her Tessie, after the Dropkick Murphys song, and as she grew up we noticed that she loved to "play". By play I mean draw blood. I know its normal for kittens to play fight, but Tessie was just plain fighting. She also loves to wait around the corner as you come down the hall and jump 3 feet in the air and kick you in the stomach, or sometimes just wave her arms around and scare you. She is about 3 years old now and she has become a big fat grumpy cat. She hates to be touched and even looked at sometimes. The only person she has ever sat with is my dad, ironically, and she has some sort of contempt for my brother, she cant even stand to be in the same room as him.

It is probably because he said one day, "I wish Tessie was nice like Flower was." And I said, "Yeah but remember all the stuff we did to Flower when we were kids? Like when we played 'cat barbershop' and sprayed her with water and tried to comb all her hair in the wrong direction." (Oh yeah, good times) We decided that a little playing around could loosen Tess up a bit and turn her into a nicer cat later on, so we swung her in a blanket like a giant cat hammock and she has been out to seek her revenge on my brother since.

The sad thing is, when I was taking care of baby Tessie Cat I was thinking, "this is great practice for having kids later on". But now, I have vowed not to bring any children into this world as long as there is a chance that they could turn out as evil as Tessie. It scares me that I see so much of my own personality in her.

I found a game that goes perfect with this post. It is so simple, but addicting. And a T-shirt. Enjoy.