Our cat Milo is fucking hard work. He's a rescue cat who lived with owners at some point in the past, but came to the rescue centre as a stray.
- He doesn't have any front teeth, so struggles to kill his prey - we've had multiple post-midnight scrambles to chase, catch and remove live rodents that he's brought in.
- He starts fights that he can't finish, due to his aforementioned lack of teeth. He's had to go in to the vets about five times for abscesses resulting from fighting wounds. His ears are all chewed up, he doesn't have hair on his forehead, and he's got scars all over his body from years of being a bruiser.
- He suffers from anxiety and regularly scratches up the carpet/chair covers when he's hungry or nervous, and he's always hungry or nervous.
- He regularly goes off his food and becomes almost impossible to feed until we find him something else to eat. He's recently decided that he won't eat dry food, and is subsequently constantly hungry, waking us up in the middle of the night wanting food, despite having been fed just before bed time. He's off to the vet tomorrow for a blood test, to check if there's anything wrong with him.
- He has got the most gratingly loud miaow I've ever heard from a cat. He starts shouting at 6am and barely stops until bed time, except when sleeping
- He expensive. He's a big old cat (6kg+, despite not being fat) and easily goes through £60 of food every month. We also pay £20 a month insurance, and put aside £50 a month for the inevitable insurance excess vet fees, vaccination charges, flea/worm treatments etc.
- He's also a gentle, soppy old git when he wants to be. He'll regularly come and plonk his not unsubstantial arse down on your lap for hours at a time, way past the point of you getting a dead leg. His purrs are like the warp core of a starship, and he absolutely loves having his belly rubbed as long as he has a full stomach. Despite his awful miaows, he's super chatty, and I'll spend whole afternoons chatting to him (and getting responses) while I potter around in the kitchen.
Overall, he's difficult, expensive, an utter pain in the arse, and a constant source of stress and anxiety. He's also been the most rewarding investment in time and money that my wife and I have ever made. Having had such a tough bloody life up until now, seeing him happily roll around in the garden asking for belly rubs, or snoring his way through a day on the sofa is satisfying in a way that makes up for all of the above.
If your cat ends up being anywhere near as difficult as ours, I definitely wouldn't recommend getting a dog too. Obviously ours is somewhat of an outlier though.
And seeing as we haven't had any pics on this thread up to now, I feel it's probably time to share some...
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