Kitties and Tree Frogs

I am lonely. I need someone here at the apartment when I come home, someone who cares that I got here safely. I need someone who will look at me when I talk, or even just ignore me with style. I need someone to eat with, have fun with, and watch TV with. Or I will, when I have time to watch TV. In short, I need a cat. I'd say I need a roommate, but those always (always) have so many problems attached. They're picky about the food (you're always wrong), keep a different schedule (yours is abnormal), they talk to their friends all the time (strangely, you're not one of them), and have all sorts of annoying habits (I won't go there). In short, they're people. So I don't need a person, when I can have a cat. I would have to deal with the litter box. Well that's not exactly a real problem. I'd have to give it food and water. Well, I give myself food and water, so it shouldn't be all that hard, now should it? Actually, let me start over, logically.

The down sides of a cat include the cost of caring for the cat (food, litter, vet bills), the time spent on the cat (playing, whatever), the possible damage to stuff (cat chews on/shreds things), and the pet fees from the apartment (in total, about 400 bucks).

The up sides of a cat include the company, which I desperately need, the time spent on the cat, and the comfort of a furry creature nearby, which is different from company.

I can handle four hundred dollars, if that's what it takes. I'd willingly give stuff up for that, if I had to, and I would have to. I'd have to rearrange a few things around here, but that would be worth it too. It's just too solitary here. And the people I see at school are great, but when I come home, they don't matter anymore. I go right back to being alone as soon as I leave. And truth be told, I'd rather be alone with a cat.

Of course, I've had this discussion with my parents on numerous occasions, and each time, they have firmly steered me away from a cat. They think I don't realize what they're doing, but they are saying "no" in logical arguments designed to keep me from figuring out that they're saying "no." I even talked it over with my boyfriend, and we ended up on the conclusion of no. But you know what? If I've had this thought, this desire, constantly enough for it to come up so often, and if I'm unhappy with all the advice people are giving me, then there must be something about having a cat that is deeply important to me. I have wanted a cat since we left CA, and our cats, behind. I have wanted a cat for years, and now I'm not at home, where animals are forbidden, and I'm not in a dorm, where animals are forbidden. I'm in an apartment, where I can have animals. At home, in the dorm, there were people. I wasn't lonely. Here, there are no people, and I am lonely. And I can have a cat. But first, I must thoroughly get my reasons cleared in my head, and set up my arguments. Then I must find the money I need.

A friend in my office has a friend whose cat has kittens. I can have one when they're weaned in a few weeks. I'll be out of summer school then, and able to stay home with the cat, getting it used to the apartment. Then all will be okay when I start classes in the fall. This is the perfect timing. Everything is falling into place, except that my desires will be shot down by the parental unit as soon as I broach the subject again. I'm a little depressed about that, I suppose. I'll talk to them after I see the kittens. Then I'll be really persuasive. I hope.

Aside from that, I have this writing project I told you about. My passionate obsession. Remember? I was talking about parents, women ministers, cats and all that with the office friend, and she asked about my assignment. She still thinks I should be obsessed about not having a passionate obsession. I still don't think that will fly for the paper. But we started brainstorming about interests that would work, and I thought of frogs. I love frogs. I have little stuffed frogs that I drag everywhere when I have a bad dream, I have a squishy frog for stress, lots of little frogs on my desk, frog posters... I love frogs. And then it came to me. Poison dart frogs, the indigenous tribes that use them in hunting way down there in the rainforest, and then: "save the rainforest!" Ah hah! There it is. Frogs. Tribal customs. Rainforests. I like all those things, and while I'm not passionate about them, I am interested, and I will admit to a certain amount of obsession about the frogs. So. There it is. My topic. Maybe. I'll see if it gels with my Muse. If not, I'm off to search again. But it should fit nicely.

Well, I'm going to call and see about seeing the kittens. I might be back on to coo about them. I might not. I have a lot of reading to do, and I've been doing this instead of it. And talking to the apartment people. I caught them again. I'm getting to be good at that. See you next time. End.