Tuesday, January 27, 2009

The joys of owning pets



Because Fernando is home this week, helping his mom make the unimaginable transition to a life without her husband of forty-five years, I am alone—well, not alone, I am left with Mateo and Margarita. This morning, something was going on with Mateo's stomach. It was making that loud liquid sound, loud enough that it woke me up. And, all I could think was, "He's gonna vomit ... or worse." And, he was obviously uncomfortable. 
So, up I got. At 4:20. To take him out. We went out. He peed, he smelled, he did what else he needed to do. We came back in. But his stomach was still loud and the cat was awake, demanding food—eleven years after we rescued her from the Columbus park where she'd been abandoned already an adult cat, she has decided that some food is beneath her. I fed her, but now it was 5:00 and I'm getting up at 5:30 this semester. So, as I told Mateo, he had robbed me of more than an hour of sleep.
They are supposed to comfort you, I think, but sometimes they are like having two particularly hairy children. 
Off to clean the box!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Where do I start with this one? First of all, why is Mateo gray? Last time I saw him he was rusty orange.

So he never vomitted? Enya once sat around the house and experienced what to a human would be "hunger pains" stomach growls - and I could not figure out why she was making these sounds nor could stop the sounds from repeating. Eventually it stopped - like a bad case of the hiccups. I mean they were so loud that you could hear them in the middle of bear night at Rich's.

The finicky cat was being the finicky cat.