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Cats 3

Even if no one wants to read about it, I’ve got another installment of cat news. I visited the PetSmart in Plymouth Meeting today.

I am now the proud owner of various cat supplies including a litter box, hair brush, scratching pole and catnip-filled plastic mice. However, I am not yet the owner of a cat. Though, I did come close.

The cats were very nice at this location. There was a cute gray kitten and another 1yr old gray cat that were potentials. There was a Russian Blue that was nice but she was too busy sleeping. There was a 5 yr old tortoise shell named Camilla that was being nice from inside the cage. The volunteer person went to call someone to see if I was eligible to adopt. For whatever reason, Camilla turned into a not nice cat as she started to hiss and tried to bite me.

It was a little awkward when the volunteer came back in and I had to say it probably wasn’t a good match. I hung out there for a little while, petting the cats but after the hissing cat, I decided to postpone my decision. The volunteer called up a foster parent that is going to give me a call this week about some other nice cats.

The adopting thing is a little tricky. You want to just pick a cat and be done with it not only because you want a cat but because you feel bad for them all having to live in the tiny cage. I guess you can look and look forever hoping you’ll stumble upon a cat you just click with. You don’t want to just settle on cat but you sort of wonder if you should at some point. Wow, it is just like dating.

Happy #$@#$@#$ Valentine’s Day

I actuaLLY THINK valentines day is really stupid. If you have a partner and in particular a man with a good woman, you should show them special treatment at many periods throughout the year. Don’t let corporate america force you to buy overpriced roses and chocolate.

Anyway, Derrick says let’s checkout Flatrock. I’m a bit tired but realize I don’t get out enough and agree. A few beers and good songs go by. I believe a Counting Crows song or something of that nature. Some girl bumbs into me and looks at me expecting to sing along. I obviously oblige. I go no further on the enagement. This is probably a major fault of mine.

Derrick just finished giving me a huge speech about how I need to step it up and engage and have game and live a full life and take advantage of my situation and pretend like there is no tomorrow and be a man and rock it all out and yeah yeah yeah. Well.

The funny thing is as follows. The bar is closing. The last song has played. There are these two girls who I had pointed out earlier in the night. They were sitting at the bar next to us. Whatever. Well, Derrick starts giving me some crap about my lack of pursuit. Whatever.

I clearly hear the girl say to him “So, what are you doing now.”

I’m sitting on my computer listening to Neil Young and watching some stupidass movie. What do you think he said?

Well, it certainly wasn’t “Not much, just gonna head back to Apple St and have a drink or two. What are you up to? You should swing by and have a drink.”

You could have handed him a cue card with that written word for word and it would have been good enough. I literally shake my head and sigh. Derrick said it will never happen again. We’ll see about that.

I hope everyone had a miserable V-day because it is a stupid made-up holiday. If you were just spending a normal Saturday doing normal Saturday stuff I hope it went really well and I wish you the best in life.

We’re doing it live!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cats 2

I spent most of the afternoon on my quest to find a cat. Alas, I’m home now with no new kitty.

I visited a shelter down in the Old City section of Philadelphia. It was incredibly busy. There were a lot of cats that had no yet been processed and were just sitting in a cage. There were two rooms with a bunch of cats just lounging around. I roamed around for a while but didn’t feel any good connections.

I took an adoption application and decided to go get some lunch. I ran into a co-worker who told me she volunteers at the shelter from time to time and encouraged me to go through with it. I made a quick call to my landlord to make sure he was cool with me getting a pet. He had no problem with it. I had a steak sandwich and a good beer at Eulogy while I thought about the whole situation. I decided to visit another shelter.

I headed up to the Philadelphia SPCA up in the northeast. It was extremely busy as they were having some sort of event. The facility appeared to have a lot of dogs. I headed back to the cats. They had quite a few though most of them were in cages. I’m not sure how you can pick a cat when it is stuck in a cage. You need to pet it and see how it acts in an open space. So, I headed to the open spaces.

In the first room there were 3 black cats and a tabby of some sort. They were all pretty boring. In the second room there was a boring cat sitting in a perch and an awesome little black and white cat. I don’t recall what her name was on the sheet but she was 6 years old and super friendly. I crouched down and she dug her claws into my leg and pulled her self up and took a seat. She looked kind of silly because there must have been matting issues and you could see that part of her back had been shaved. Her paper work said she had been brought to the shelter because her owner didn’t like how she smelled or something. She smelled normal to me. I left the room and came back several times and she watched me. I felt bad when I had to leave.

With the SPCA you need to have a lease or documentation that you are allowed to have pets. Being that I don’t actually have a lease or any documentation I wasn’t able to adopt. I’m currently searching the internet for some sort of form I can get my landlord to sign.

As I previously wrote, I’d like a younger cat but this black and white one was so nice that I think I’d make an exception. Given its age I’m sure its personality is well established and I could expect it to be lively going forward.

Tomorrow I’m going to check out my local PetSmart because they work with adoption agencies and have some event going on this weekend.

Cats

During my lunch today, I visited the Montgomery County SPCA. I’d never visited any sort of animal shelter before. I didn’t know what to expect.

There were about a dozen cats. Most of them were strays. It was a little sad.

There was a wide variety of personality in those cats. Some barely moved while others were super energetic. I sat and interacted with a few for couple minutes but none really struck me as the cat I’m looking for. I did get a really good idea of what I’d like in a cat though.

I don’t really care about the breed of cat. I would like a cat that is somewhere between 1 and 3 years old. I’d prefer that it is a female that has already been spayed. I’ve heard that neutering male cats changes their personality and I’d imagine it is the same for females to some degree. I’d like the personality to be well-established when I’m choosing the cat.

I’ll probably go to some shelters tomorrow.