Saturday, June 27, 2009

Oswald: Friend or Fiend?


I think this should go out to a vote.  (See above, Oswald's myspace picture.)

The Man and I bought a cat last October, ostensibly to keep him company while he was living by himself in DC before we got married, mostly because I wanted a cat and the Man spoils me ridiculously.  Unfortunately, we couldn't take Os with us to Texas after we got married so he spent 4 months in Lebanon with my oldest sister and her husband, wrecking havoc and generally rampaging.  They say they loved him. They also say that they will now never own pets. So Oswald came back into our ownership around the middle of May and, since then, has been going back and forth from my black list to my favourites list.

Here's the situation (you can judge for yourself). 

He's adorable, extremely personable, and highly amusing. However, he's destructive as all get out, overly opinionated, and occasionally violent.  I love: that he comes to cuddle with me in the mornings, that he likes to be petted in the middle of the night when I go to the bathroom, that he chases his tail...and bites it, that his mouth opens up a good two inches like that snake that can unhinge its jaw.  Plus, he's just so darn cute.  However, I highly dislike Oswald's propensity to: chew through important wires (like my laptop charger...which cost 80 bucks to replace), climb on my newly sanitized kitchen counters, meow and throw himself at our bedroom door if we don't get up early enough in the morning, beg for food when we're eating dinner (sounds cute; gets old fast), chew on the blinds, and bite when you don't pet him exactly where he wants to be petted.

Can you understand my dilemma? I'm past the point of wanting to drown him in the nearby Potomac (I was so close the weekend where he chewed through 6 major cords in the space of 24 hours), but I'm still not completely sure where my opinion of him lies.  So what do you think? Friend or foe? Let's take a vote.

3 comments:

indokura said...

Friend! Oswald and I are TEAM (as Abi Beatty would say...you can be TEAM or NO TEAM depending on your status as friend or foe). Everyone needs a little destruction in his/her life...especially people who desire perfection...like yourself... Oswald reminds you of the Chaos that is Life. While disruptive and unruly, his general charm keeps you from ever being able to get rid of him. One thing though, you should change his name to Fuzzy. It just has such a nice ring to it...

Kacamata said...

Oswald is crazy. That is a certainty. But I never could bring myself to kick him out of the house. And we even let him sleep in our room! I hear that cats to settle down eventually--after years. Personally, I think he's got a split personality---kind of like Jekyll and Hyde.

Lee said...

i'd have to say that you already have enough violent/opinionated/touchyfeely/crazy people in your life, and some of them get mad when you're not online because of cord-chewing. besides, you'll have an adorable replacement soon enough. fire the cat.