This isn't a troll post or some dick dog person going undercover but a real cat owner who was raised in a house with cats, married a cat lover and currently has three adult cats each 10+yrs old living as inside cats in a 3 bedroom house.
I've always preferred cats, the ones we've had who've passed were like family, their deaths heart breaking. But over the past ten years I've slowly gotten to the point of seeing more cons than pros.
My childhood cat was a short hair Russian Blue but when I began dating my wife she had a male Maine Coon & a black female longhair. At first the long hair didn't bother me, I'm not allergic, but the negative side effect of them throwing up hairballs, etc. quickly became apparent.
Over the past 20 years those kitties have passed and we adopted more, but not to write a novel here, the three we have now are 2 Maine Coons from the same litter (big male, smaller female) & a male Nebelung/Russian Blue.
My wife and I never had children and looked at our "fur babies" as our kids. But I kind of compare it to having a human baby that ages to 2 or 3 years and just stays there. You know going in the responsibilities of pet ownership if you have an IQ above 80, but I am just really tired of the throwing up, cleaning the catbox, the pebbles of sand that appear everywhere you don't want them, the smells, etc..
My wife loves them & they can do no wrong in her eyes but my bouts of losing my temper at again the carpet being puked on have made her see where I'm getting to. The male Russian Blue, regardless of how closely cut his fur is around his butt, has started to get turds suck to him I guess, and then he rubs himself on the floor streaking the carpet or unceremoniously just leaving an errant turd yards away from the boxes.
I think if we had tile or wood floors I might not be so fed up, but we have carpet which I hate anyway. "Let's give the floor a sweater to wear it can never take off to wash!" Brilliant. Shampooer's, steam cleans, etc. are all just stop gaps...if you own pets period your carpet will eventually be ruined.
Do any of you fellow cat lovers ever feel this way? Are you too thinking in your mind when the cat/cats you own pass away that they will be the last cat(s) pyou have? Since our three are all roughly the same age of 13 to 14, although healthy, I worry about them passing away close together and how my wife will respond. When our cats before these died of course she was all "I never want another cat again, no one can replace Max!" but a week later she brought the two Maine Coon twins we have now home without even talking to me about it.
I used to look at it like if 30% of having a cat is a hassle the other 70% totally makes up for it. Now I fear I waver between 55%-45% to the good and get easily pissed and aggrieved at the BS of the negative 45%.
I do sincerely love my cats but it's like if we're using the kid analogy, can't they go spend the night at their friends house every once in awhile? Any advice or am I alone on this and just a mean asshole?
