In wintertime, the door to the office doesn’t latch. Because of this, I cannot keep the cat out of this room. I have tried. I have tried so many things but nothing works. The cat finds a way in. Currently, he is sitting behind the computer playing go fish with the monitor wires. This is neither good for him nor the computer and it is certainly not a good environment for writing.
There is nothing that can be done. I have entered a state of learned helplessness and have to let the cat run amock. Attempt to work through it. Like Poe’s raven, he will be there forevermore, scratching, clawing at my office wall.
Working with a cat is an exercise in futility. After I wrote what might be the worst newsletter in the history of newsletters last Friday I had an unfortunate release of anger. I released every bit of anger meant for the cat and my own shortcomings at the person least responsible, but that is what cats do. They are vessels for demonic forces and sometimes they transfer them to you.
It is true that cats can be full of love and that my cat follows me around and tortures me because he loves me, but in order for this newsletter to be successful, I need the proper environment to work in. Some might say the perfect environment for a newsletter about pets is one shared with a cat, but not when that cat’s entire focus is driving one to the brink of insanity.
Some might say I should give the cat what he wants and that is an option. The issue is he is on prescription wet food that costs an arm and two legs. It is very hard to pay that price each month and then doubling that payment would be even more painful. The problem might be taking care of itself as Chewy is out of his wet food at the moment and we have to seek out alternatives and it is hard to imagine anything being more expensive.
The cat also has developed separation anxiety and it manifests in weird ways. The other night I stayed up later than usual and the cat attacked me to get me to go to bed. The cat wants to be with all his people all at the same time. So, when I come up to the office to write it deeply disturbs the cat and he goes to great lengths to get me to return downstairs so doesn’t have to make such an effort to check up on everyone.
Cats are wonderful loving creatures. They just sometimes need a lot of attention and demand it at moments when we are least capable of giving it to them. I deeply want this newsletter to be successful, and I can’t let a little thing like having to share space with my cat stop me.