Ugly Cat goes to a better place

One of the more popular blog posts I've written was about Capu, the ugly, snotty, half-bald, flea-ridden, wheezing, sneezing, skin-flake-coated 12-year-old cat who spends most of his time rubbing his nose against the furniture and bare legs of anyone who happens to be in the house. In the past year or so, I've mentioned this cat more than my boyfriend (as evidenced here, here and here), mostly because my boyfriend is less likely to wipe his nose on the back of my hand (a character trait that I really appreciate, but which isn't all that blogworthy...I think...).

However, for all that I complain about Capu a lot and insult him on a daily basis, it is with great sadness that I must announce he passed away this weekend.

Watch those renovations or your house will become the latest cat gym

Years ago, I found out that it is possible our house started out as a small shack just the size of our kitchen. The rumour started based on the fact that the kitchen is made of a different set of materials than the rest of the house and if you move the fridge you can see the seam where the kitchen and the rest of the house are joined. You can also see the crack in the middle of the kitchen wall where part of the place is clearly sinking into its own foundations, and I often envision the house cracking in two and going under, much like the titanic. But that's another post for another time.

My cat is gross and useless but I love him (theoretically)

Apology #4: Capu

Cat, I like to think I don’t have favourites, but we’ve all noticed that I much prefer your brother over you. I suppose that saying “That’s Kato, he’s the better one” whenever strangers meet you two might have tipped you off. I know that introducing you as ‘the one who scratches all the hair off of his back because of his flea allergy and likes to wipe his nose on people’ doesn’t help you to make a great first impression. Here is the thing, though: you are a cat. This means you will survive, because, as xkcd has so wonderfully illustrated, human intelligence is inversely proportional to the human’s proximity to a cat. Ergo, by the time a human is near enough to realize that you are bloody, half-bald, covered in scabs, and like to use humans as your facial tissues, these humans lack the intelligence to realize what an unbalanced cat-human relationship they are about to enter into.

For instance, a week or so ago, a friend of mine insisted on cuddling with you even after I warned him that you were ugly and Kato was better then you. Then, this friend lay down on the living room floor and began drinking water out of an old cardboard juice can, even though I offered to get him a perfectly good glass of water from the kitchen. Considering this is peak shedding season for you, I can only assume that this juice can was full of clumps of your cat hair, probably coated in a mixture of dead cat-skin flakes and old concentrated juice droplets. And he drank water out of that. I can only blame you for this lapse in his judgment. Not only are you scabby, snotty and bald, but you also diminish the intelligence levels of my friends.

Anyway, as you can see, what I’m trying to say here is that I’m sorry that you are so gross. I am sorry, kitty! Remember that I do still pet you, knowing what you are. And I love you! Though not nearly as much as your brother, or most other things on my kitchen table, including the half-used pad of college-rule paper you are sleeping on top of. And when you’re in the kitchen sink and I turn the water on full blast, that’s always most definitely an accident—I just didn’t notice your 15 pounds of hairy kitty flesh sitting directly beneath the tap! And so I’m sorry for that, too.

Love,
Amy
who still doesn’t quite seem to get what an apology is.