I feel like a terrible, terrible pet owner today. I am seriously contemplating putting one of my kitties down. She is now a geriatric kitty who isn’t using the litter box any longer. I feel terrible because I didn’t take time to find out what was up with her when this all started. May be she had a UTI which caused her not to use the litter box and now it has become a habit. We have replaced carpet in one room twice and will be getting carpet for another room any day. I know we need to do something and several people have said it’s time to put her down. Why do I feel so guilty? It doesn’t seem right just to end a life. Especially, we I look into her sweet trusting eyes.
Molly cat and I have lived under the same roof for 15 years. She is the cat with the bodacious purr and beautiful silky white fur with patches of tan and gray. My mother thought she had a monkey face. We have been through thick and thin, highs and lows. She’s seen me at my best and at my worst.
I first met Molly on a stormy Spring night. I was awakened to hear her crying. She was sitting on my bedroom window ledge. I went to open the blind and all I saw was a white streak. A day or two later, I returned to my apartment from a bike ride and this tiny kitten with a huge plume of a tail ran up to me from behind the lilac bush in front of my living room window. I fed her tuna and the rest is history. My apartment complex had IUPUI college students and I have feeling someone dumped her at the end of the semester.
Molly cat was my first pet. I learned that 4 month old kittens are very energetic and persistent. Having grown up in a pet free zone, I was bound and determined not to let this cat on my bed at night. First, I tried simply closing the door. That didn’t work. This kitty had claws and knew how to use them. Then I tried sleeping with a squirt gun to deter her. Then I just gave up. When I had her spayed, I even made a pallet on the bed with towels and put her on it so she wouldn’t try to jump on the bed and get hurt. I was officially owned by this cat. Before I knew it, I couldn’t go to sleep unless she was perched on me and purring. I miss her doing that. Now, another cat has taken over that job, but he walks around way too much at night.
Here official past-time in that first apartment was bird and people watching. I kept the living room blinds open at all times and she had a cat condo as her perch. But her favorite past-time was giving me fits by sneaking out the door and running up and down the stairway in the hall.
Molly also did her fair share of traveling to visit my parents in Evansville. The first trip was a bit traumatic as she got two baths due to fleas. My mother became known as “mean, evil bath woman”. Molly won over my mother who never wanted animals in the house. My Dad was a total pushover. Animals and babies love my Dad. Mom and I returned home from shopping, to find Molly and my Dad having a grand time. Dad fashioned a cat toy from an old fishing pole with twine and a plastic ring from a milk jug. I have no idea how long they played. Molly would do all kinds of acrobatics to try to catch that ring. If there were kitty X-games, she would have won a gold medal. Shawn White had nothing on this cat, 180s, 360s, backflips, you name it. Molly had game.
Molly had an arch nemesis, “dark Molly”. My best friend, Chris in Seattle, also got a cat at about the same time. Somehow we both named our cats Molly. Both were extremely fluffy small cats, but Seattle Molly had gray tabby stripes. Chris brought her Molly with her at Christmas to Evansville. Of course, our Mollys had to meet. Here’s how it went down. Chris brought Dark Molly over to my parent’s. Dark Molly had confidence in spades. She immediately drank White Molly’s water, ate her food, used her litter box and played with her toys. White Molly was not impressed. I have a picture of a chair with Dark Molly in the seat and White Molly underneath not amused. Cats don’t make friends as easily as people. Who knew?
The years past by and I stayed busy with two jobs. There were several guys who came and went who Molly didn’t like. I should have paid more attention to her people assessing skills. She was right on about them.
A young man moved into the apartment above mine. It was a year before I met him, but I knew all about him like what he watched on tv and when he got home from work and when someone rear-ended his truck. Actually, I ignored him because I thought he was a college freshman and I was a bit over thirty. A neighbor introduced us. Yes, this is my husband, Brandon. Plus, Molly loved him. She would ignore and hang with her new buddy, a confirmed dog person. Brandon ended up with several shirts with Molly claw holes.
Molly’s world turned upside down while I was out of town visiting a friend. My apartment flooded when the water line to the toilet burst the morning before I returned home. I had to rescue her out from under the bed. Then she got to spend a few nights in Brandon’s apartment checking out the tree tops from his window. Then she moved to the temporary “show apartment” when Brandon had a seizure and spent time at his parents. After a fight with the apartment complex, I moved to a new, better apartment complex. Now, she had moved up to a screened in porch and windows on both sides of the building.
With the screened in porch, came admirers. One was a persistent fellow. He’d even peek in the window when she wasn’t on the porch looking for her. Someone was feeding him, but his fur got a little dirtier every time I saw him. Finally, I lured him into my apartment with a trail of cat food. Since this guy was a stray, I quarantined him on the porch until he got checked and out by the vet and neutered. Boy cats stink until they get fixed. Malachi was so tiny when I got him. Now, he’s a muscle-bound dude. They still fight like siblings. He just loves to annoy the heck out of her.
She had one more move to make into our house once we got married. She seems to like it right away. However, the first cold night that fall, she got out of the house at midnight while Brandon was taking out the trash. After what seemed like an eternity, I found her above the wheel well on the neighbor’s car. I pulled her out by her collar and stuffed her inside my coat so she couldn’t get away. She was completely coated in grease, but it was late. I decided to wait until morning to give her a bath. That crazy cat licked all of that off during the night. Yuck.
She was the star of my Pampered Chef party where she sat like a guest on the sofa. It’s funny. When people come over, she’s the one who comes out to meet everyone while Malachi runs because it could be my nephews or niece. He’ll come out when he realizes it’s adults.
Then we did the worst thing you can do to a cat. We got a dog. Molly hated dogs. She once was sniffed by one at the vet. That’s all it took. Lucy is such a good dog with cats. She only chases them if they start running first. I have caught Molly and Lucy sitting near each other maybe once. They get along just fine.
I think Molly may have started with not using the litter box sometime after Lucy came into the family. I don’t remember. But we clean carpet and replace carpet. Three carpets later, it’s time to do something.
I’ve been in denial. I have tried to create all kinds of gates and barriers to keep her in the dining room and kitchen where there is vinyl flooring. She’s very determined that she will not be fenced in or out. We almost missed our flight to Portland trying to fortify a baby gate between our bar and fridge. She had it knocked down before we got our bags out the door. The trip before last we put a very nice looking gate between the dining and living room. It had wire both vertically and horizontally. She used the horizontal wire as a ladder. This latest trip I got crafty. I pulled out some leftover screening and some crochet thread. I thought if I covered the gate with screening that she wouldn’t be able to get over it. I think it take her maybe 45 minutes to get up enough steam to jump to the top of the gate and over. Other than a dog kennel, I don’t know what to do. If we put her in a kennel while we are gone that’s one thing, but at night she will yawl and keep us awake. I’m not ready to see her life end, but what else can we do?
It’s hard to part with someone who has been such a big part of my life. She’s still a beautiful cat and still has a bodacious purr. My mother-in-law has offered to take her to the vet to put her to sleep so I won’t have too. That just seems cruel that someone she doesn’t know well would take her to her end. My poor kitty, Molly. I’m just afraid I will feel guilty and will fall apart. I can’t fall apart. I don’t have time. Plus, work has pretty much done me in this year.
Yes, I just wrote almost three pages about my cat. I hoped I would feel more settled about all this by writing about it. I don’t.
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