That Darn Cat.

I'm a dog person.

Don't get me wrong. I don't mind cats. I think most cats are very cute. I love kittens. I used to have cats when I was a kid, although in reality I never really had a real pet until I had Ginger. We just had random cats that hung out around our house and that we would feed leftovers to periodically. We didn't do thing like, take our animals to the vet. That cost money and we didn't have money.

Also, Girl Child is highly, HIGHLY allergic to cats. She can't be in the same room with a cat.

Our neighborhood has a cat however. I don't know to whom the cat belongs and I have no idea where it lives, but it roams about our neighborhood totally oblivious to the world around it.

The cat, I think, is deaf.

I discovered that the cat is deaf because one day I was attempting to go to work and the cat was trotting along in front of my car, merrily unaware that my 5000 pound death machine was behind it. I tooted my horn a bit, just to let it know so it would move over, but this also did not phase the cat.

Now, even though I'm a dog person I would never hit a cat at all, but I had to go to work and I had to drop Children People off at school.

The cat didn't care. It sat in the middle of the street and began to groom itself.

Girl Child was nonplussed. "Mom, cats are like that. They aren't very friendly."

True, many cats are kind of standoffish. But this was more.

"I think that cat is deaf," I said. "It's a deaf cat."

I moved around the cat gingerly, which let me just tell you is difficult to do in an SUV, and for some reason the cat noticed me.

It looked up at us.

Alarmed.

EXTREMELY ALARMED.

Boy Child laughed hysterically and said,

"Look at that cat! It's all like, 'WHAT THE HELL?'"

Which of course made me laugh so hard that I almost ran into the cat. But I didn't, so no worries.

Since then I've tried to find the cat's owner. I've asked everyone on our street and even some of the mean, weird people on the other streets around us. No one will claim poor, deaf, what-the-hell cat.

Boy Child, however, will occasionally run into the room, look at me extremely alarmed and shriek, "What the hell!"

So at least the poor cat is good for a laugh.

Honestly, though, for a deaf cat with no home it seems to be doing okay. It's not skinny and it appears to be happy other than when huge SUV's are behind it. I imagine the cat is doing okay.


But still. I wish the cat had a home. Or at least a place not on the street to groom itself.