Cat Woman

There are cat people and dog people and people who like both and people who like neither.  Until my 40s, I fell into the latter category.  Before our sons threatened to disown us if we didn't get them a dog, the only animal to ever steal my heart was Stuart Little, my childhood guinea pig.  I named him after my favorite book of all time.  Such a cute guy.  I loved him so much I got him a playmate.  I named him King Sol.  I was going through a biblical phase.  King Sol and Stuart Little got along famously.  And then Stuart got chubby and a red flag went up.  And then the baby guinea piggies arrived.  It was a confusing time for me.  I'm still not over it.  But anyway, back to the issue at hand.  Cats vs Dogs.  Cats, I can live without.  I'm allergic to them.  I don't understand their allure.  They freak me out.  My friend Carrie, on the other hand, loves cats.  She owns two, and even when they manage to turn on her faucets and flood the house while she's at work, she still loves them, unconditionally.  Who am I to judge? A certain Labrador once ate through the carpet on the stairs, straight through to the wood, while we were at a Bar Mitzvah.  I love him just the same. 

Carrie and I have a mutual friend who's completely meshuganah about cats.  She has many cats.  Many, many.  Too many.  And a live-in boyfriend.  How long he'll live in is anybody's guess.  The fact that animal control hasn't come around is a miracle.  Until that happens, Carrie and I must decide whether to send our friend Terry (not her real name, in case she wants to hang on to a shred of dignity) the following article that Carrie found online.  It's a cautionary tale, one Terry should probably read (in case she wants to hang on to that live-in boyfriend.)  

The headline says it all:  "Cat Divorce: Israeli Man Divorces Wife Over Her 550 Cats."  Can you blame him?  Here's the story, courtesy of the Times of Israel.  "A man from southern Israel is divorcing his wife because she adopted 550 pet cats.  The unnamed man complained in his divorce documents that the hundreds of kitties hindered his home life at every turn: they blocked the entrance to the bathroom, swarmed the kitchen, and stalked him at mealtime by stealing his food off the table.And though the couple reportedly gave reconciliation a shot at the behest of the rabbinical court, the wife ultimately choose the cats over her husband, and the pair decided to go their separate ways." Hmm.  I'm thinking maybe Carrie should send this story to Terry, cat woman to cat woman.  I'm thinking I should stay out of this. It's really not my place to stick my claws where they don't belong.