10 Struggles Every Catless Cat Lover Will Understand

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I am such a cat person. I really am; I just have a cat that doesn’t love me anymore since I brought home a dog that attacked it, caused it to suffer from collapsed lungs and failing kidneys. I took him right to the vet, he lived and it’s all because of me. But he hates me. He is so not over all that happened almost 8 months ago that he actually ran away from home last week and we have not seen him since. No one in our neighborhood has seen him, and he is not registered at any shelters or rescues as of yet. It’s sad; especially since there are a number of coyotes that have taken to roaming this area, and we’re a little worried that he’s met an untimely death after escaping the house and running away from us.

My husband has since said no more animals. I want to go get a little kitten for the kids. He said no way. Apparently I am not good with animals, and it’s not fair for me to be responsible for anymore animals until a bit later in my life when I’m better at doing so (whatever). So now I’m a cat person without a cat (hopefully he will come back safe and sound!). And I get the struggle. People, the struggle is real.

The landlord said no

I’m a homeowner, so I don’t have a landlord. But I have a husband, and he’s put his foot down. Of all the times for him to finally take a stand on something around here, it has to be this one? Okay, so he’s right. I’ve been a terrible pet owner the past few months since the dog attack, but not because of me!  The cat held a grudge.

Your spouse is allergic

When you marry someone who is allergic to cats, life as you know it will end as far as ever owning one again. Of course, real cat people would never marry someone who was allergic to cats. Real cat people would go on a first day and ask, “So, you like cats?” and the date would say, “I’m allergic,” and the cat person would say, “Check, please. Oh, and don’t call me ever again,” because that’s what real cat people do.

Your kids are allergic

Now that’s a kicker. Imagine being a cat person and having babies and finding out that your babies are allergic to cats. Now what? You can’t give the baby away, so you have to give the cat away. Real cat people feel that this is just not fair at all. It’s not; but you do have a responsibility to the baby you made. It’s all right to be upset, though; you’re allowed to mourn your new baby’s allergies.

Cats on the internet

They are everywhere. Everywhere. I can’t look at the computer, my phone or anything that is connected to the internet without seeing cats. They’re everywhere on social media, on Pinterest and everywhere in between. You cannot escape cats. There is nothing worse than this fate for those who cannot have cats of their own. Nothing worse.

You want one – bad

You can’t stop. You cannot help yourself. You cannot change the way that you feel. You see a cat online or in person and you start to shake. You want to pet it. You want to hold it. You want to bring it home and love it all the time. You want it. But you can’t have it. For whatever reason, your life has not worked out so that you could have the cat you’ve loved forever. It’s tragic.

You stalk cats you could own on pet websites

All the time; you do this all the time. You find all the cats that you could buy, adopt, pick up or have anywhere in the 200 miles surrounding your home, and you are saddened by what a cruel world it is that you cannot have the cat. You cannot have this cat. You may look, but you cannot go pick it up. And the worst part is that you cannot stop looking.

The people at the pet store look at you like you’re strange

You visit every day. You’ve formed a relationship with the cats that they have in the store. You love them. You know them all by name. Yet you never take one home with you, and the people at the pet store think that you are kind of strange. You love them so much that you are now friends with them, but you do not have one. What is wrong with you, weird person?

You want to take all the cats on the street home

Perhaps it has a collar and a tag and it’s sitting on the steps of a home as you take a walk through your neighborhood. You know this cat has a home, but there is a part of you that wants to trick it into coming closer so you can grab it and run. It’s called cat-napping (see what I did there?) and it’s probably kind of illegal – or at least frowned upon.

Pet rescue events on the weekends

Why can you not do something as simple as pick up groceries without Girl Scouts and animal rescue facilities shoving cookies and kittens in your face? It’s cruel and it’s wrong. You want to so badly, but you can’t, and this just makes you feel even worse. Seriously, you now feel so badly about yourself that you cannot even function. It’s not awesome.

Your friend’s cat is better than your friend

You have that one friend with a cool cat. And you want to hang out with that friend all the time. Not because you love your friend – and you do – but because you love his or her cat so much that it’s all you can think about on a daily basis. It’s weird, but cat lovers without cats understand that you have to do what you have to do.

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