My First Pet

The first time I picked him up he purred. I was in love (as much as a person can love a non-person). Because he was the first pet everything he did I thought was wonderful. He was the most cuddly. He was the most playful. He was certainly better than anyone else's cat ever. Most of all. He was mine.

During my time with Toast I learned a few things about (most) cats (and especially this cat) that I didn't know before.

• A cat cuddles on his own terms. When he is done, he is done and if you do not release him the claws will come out.
• If you do not pick the appropriate litter, the cat will not potty appropriately. In fact, anything at all off in the potty department can cause disastrous results (more on this in a moment).
• If you allow the cat into your bed at night the cat will come into your bed at night. It will lay on your pillow and meow in your ear and unholy times of morning because he thinks it's time to get up. Meowing increases in volume and duration especially after the alarm goes off. Now he knows it's time to get up.
• Once a cat gets accustomed to something it will never change. Move his food dish or favorite toy from it's hiding spot and suffer.
• A cat will not greet you at the door after a long day wagging its tail and being excited to see you now that you're back. A cat will ignore you as punishment for leaving it alone.

The last point is especially true. Toast became so upset  and stressed with being left alone when I went away (for my honeymoon, weekends at my parents etc) that became constipated. He would cry when he had to go. Bathroom time became a very unhappy time for him. It progressed to the point that it affected his mood. He was the sassiest cat that I'd ever met.

I loved the fact that he was so big and fluffy. I loved the moments when he wanted to cuddle. I could help but hope that someday I would get a cat that would just want to cuddle all the time, let me hold it like it's a baby, carry it around etc. However, after this experience I learned that cats in general do not enjoy such things.

I got to my breaking point with Toast when he started hurting going to the bathroom so much that he would look for softer places to poop--such as my couch, bedspread, floor etc. I was mad at him at first until I took him to the vet and learned the behavior was a result of his medical problems. The solution would have costs us thousands of dollars in vet bills and even then they couldn't guarantee that the behavior would change now that he was accustomed to those potty spots. After weeks on end we made the extremely difficult decision to have him put down.

I still feel a little guilty when I think about that day, and there are many things that I will still miss about Toast. I do however strongly feel that we did what was best. We took his pain away. After that though, I was certain that I wouldn't get another pet for a very long time. We went away for the weekend right afterward to visit my family up north. When we came home the house just seemed too empty....