“C” is for Cat

There’s a countdown on my fridge written in dry erase marker on a magnetic board displaying the days left until our cat’s birthday. Everyone who has come over to the apartment has exclaimed his or her excitement for the event of the year.

“Hey, so are you going to the birthday party on the 28^th?” my sister had asked a firefighter friend.

“Yes! I’m so down!”

“Yeah, were going to have hats, decorations and stick a candle in her food and everything.”

“Oh, my gosh! I’m so excited.”

A year ago, this month, a cat left two small mangy kittens on a family’s doorstep. The kittens were cold a malnourished so the family brought them in with the hopes of giving away one of them. A month later, just before Thanksgiving, a couple of coeds drove to meet the family and adopt a grey longhaired kitten with white markings.

It seemed as though the cat may not have liked us from the start, but we had already purchased cat food and litter and had already followed through with getting the cat’s vaccinations.

There were times where the cat would stare perplexedly at anyone attempting to discipline her with a spray bottle. We had all come to the conclusion that she was either trying to piss us off, or that she may be a little slow to process things, as she unemotionally took dozens of squirts of water directly to the face.

However, it is on September 28th that we have decided to celebrate the cat, who had been violently shaken by her previous owners’ small children, and who might have received some long lasting brain damage as an affect. She may never really know where sounds are coming from, or what’s going on in her general vicinity, but she can be sort of sweet when she’s not throwing shade and giving you the side eye.

So regardless of whether she likes us or not, there is a party full of people who also tolerate her and would like to wish her a happy birthday.

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