OMG I am soo angry right now

[paraka]

I know I've made little whiny mentions that I want to move out of my parents house, but I think I've finally hit the end of my rope. I am so angry right now I'm crying.

God.

So I just had a fight with my family.
As I've mentioned before, I have a cat. I almost didn't move back home because of the cat, but in the end, my parents said to bring her. And, everyone fell in love with Tigger. My dad and sister adore her, and my mom, who hates cats, has been caught snuggling her. Despite all this, I'm the one who has to do all the work to take care of her. If she throws up or something (she's getting old, so it happens), they'll leave if for me to clean up, even if I'm not there when it happens and everyone else in the house is. My mom, who I think is delusional, is always harassing me to clean her littler box, because she thinks it stinks, even if I just cleaned it the other day. About the only thing I don't do is feed her, but that's just because other people seem to do it before me. I used to it all the time, but, well, Tigger loves food, and it's the fastest way to her heart.

The thing is, she's kind of loud. Especially in the morning. The thing is, normally you just leave her to it, or snag her into bed and snuggle her, and she's quiet in no time, but the rest of my family isn't patient. They got into the habit of feeding her whenever she meows in the morning, and now, it's one of the only ways to shut her up. I am not a morning person, so days I get up and let her out of my room while still asleep, other times I sleep right through it. Often it's my little sister who gets annoyed enough to go do something. But she bitches about it endlessly. God, I hate her whining more than Trigger's. She'll come into my room and sit on my bed and snuggle with my cat, which can be quite distracting, and then complain to me about how annoying she is.

Well apparently she's taken it up one level, and now my parents are blaming me for it. There is nothing I can do in the morning to stop Tigger, not really. But they're saying if I don't get her to stop they're going to have her put down.

Over my dead body.

So yes, I think it's time I moved.

Comments

[maekala.livejournal.com]

How do they go from a loud cat to wanting to put her down? That's horrible!

But that's also the primary reason why I can't really live with anyone: I have to have my kitties with me.

[paraka]

Heh. Maybe I should just move to Texas and we can have loud cats together. :P

As for getting from being loud to killing her. Well, they've killed annoying cats in the past. When my aunt went to Australia for a year, she left her cat with my grandmother, but the cat started peeing in the vents, and so my mom convinced my grandmother to have the cat put down, and they lied to my aunt.

I made the argument that she's only *my* cat when she's being bad, the rest of the time everyone loves her and claims that she's the *family* cat, so they can step up once in a while if she's annoying them. My dad said that if she's his cat, he's going to put her down rather than deal with it.

[maekala.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'm just too much of a cat person in that I treat them like my children, but that really would be like saying, "My child is making too much noise, so I'm gonna put him down." *shakes head*

Four loud cats all in the same apartment...we'd definitley have to get something bigger than what I have now!

[paraka]

I know, in the middle of the argument I had to leave the house. I just got in the car and started driving. But as I was replaying the argument in my head (don't you always come up with the best comebacks *after* the conversation), I so wish I had said something like "Well Mom snores and keeps everyone up (she seriously does, my dad sleeps on the couch most nights because she's too noisy) and no one talks about putting *her* down!

[maekala.livejournal.com]

Why is it the best comebacks always come to you after the arguement? Still, you should keep it in reserve in case it comes up again.

[keewick.livejournal.com]

If for whatever reason you can't move any time soon, you should think about setting an alarm to feed her or to carry her back to bed to snuggle early enough that your family members aren't awake yet. I mean, yeah, having to wake up at the crack of dawn sucks, but I think a little inconvenience, esp. if it's temporary in nature while you're preparing to move, outweighs your family threatening to put down your cat.

Also: I think you must be mistaken about your family having fallen in love with Tigger. Nobody who adored their pet would ever threaten to kill them if they posed such an innocuous nuisance as is the case here. That they passed right over finding another suitable home for the cat to putting her down just boggles my mind. Seriously, as an animal lover, this post just made me furious!

[paraka]

Yeah, I think I'm just going to try and keep Tigger close for the next little while. Plus, I do actually enjoy our early morning snuggling when we do it.

Also: I think you must be mistaken about your family having fallen in love with Tigger. Nobody who adored their pet would ever threaten to kill them
I... don't actually think tey were being completely serious. I mean, they *said* it seriously, but I can't believe they'd actually go through with it.
But it still worries me, because maybe I'm just fooling myself? They actually have a history of killing cats when they become too much work (my aunt left a cat when she moved to Australia for a year, and my mom had her put down and lied about how she died). Although, I'm sure telling you this isn't helping with your fury as an animal lover :S
It just really pisses me off that they'd even bring it up, because that is sooo not an option. Ever.

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's terrible. That's horribly rude of your family to be so dismissive. :(

That said, I can see where they're coming from. When it's cold, my brother's dog has to sleep inside. Because my brother's not a morning person, he doesn't hear the dog whining and scratching and waking everyone else up at six in the morning. So it's up to me or my mom to put him out, which I think is unfair. It's his dog, his responsibility, and if he can't prevent his dog from disturbing everyone else when he sleeps inside, then he shouldn't sleep inside. No matter how much my brother loves his dog, I don't think an animal has the right to inconvenience a house full of people.

Probably not what you wanted to hear, but I thought I'd throw my two cents in. I do hope you're able to move out soon, though -- it sounds like you've been unhappy for a while and that's not awesome. :(

[paraka]

So when the dog is up early whining, it just wants to be put outside? Can I ask why you don't just get up and let it out? Then it'll be quiet and you'll be able to go back to sleep. That's what the issue is here, if they just put some food out, she'll mostly be quiet after and everyone can go back to sleep, problem solved.

[paradise-city.livejournal.com]

Icon love!

When the dog whines, he wants to be let out to do his business. If you don't let him out, he makes a mess in the bathroom and the first person who needs to take a shower (usually me, as my brother's not a morning person) has to clean it up if he's not let out in time.

My issue with letting him out is that it's not my responsibility. I think if you (general you) want to keep a pet in a house with other people, it's your responsibility to make the sure the pet doesn't inconvenience anyone. Why should it be someone else's responsibility to look after your pet? If you don't care enough about your pet to care for it properly (and I think making sure other people aren't inconvenienced is proper care), then why should anyone else, especially when it's not their pet?

It's not a huge issue, I get that, but it really adds up after a while. Usually I end up putting the dog out, but it pisses me off every single time. I'm awake and cold and shivering while my brother's sleeping soundly. It's just not fair. And actually, it's resulted in me really disliking this dog. None of our others dogs have been as difficult and I've loved them to bits. But if this dog got lost tomorrow and never came back, I'd feel bad for my brother but thrilled for me. And I'm usually not that cold about pets.

(I'm a bit bitter about this, in case you couldn't tell. Sorry if that spilled over onto your situation.)

[paraka]

Hmm, I can't speak for what it's like at your house, but what annoys me the most about how my family acts is that while, yes, I did bring the cat here, and if I leave, I hope to take her with me, mostly she's a family cat. Everyone spends a lot of time loving her and playing with her. I do the brunt of the taking care of her, but still, family cat. So I guess it pisses me off that when everything fine she's a family can, but when she's bad, she's my cat and my responsibility. Yeah it sucks that she woke them up, but I can't help that, short of getting rid of her, or sound proofing individual rooms. I can't help the fact that I could sleep through a nuclear holocaust either (seriously, I have multiple alarms because I don't wake easily). Since she's their cat most of the time, couldn't she be their cat for this little bit of time too? Hell, I'll even get the food ready the night before, so all that's needed is for someone to physically take the food from the fridge and to put it on the floor. If it weren't for the fact that it's wet food, I would totally put it out the night before.

As for your brothers dog, I guess there's no way to get a doggie door?
One of the things my mom threatened me with (although I personally don't see how it accomplishes much other than making two people miserable) is that instead of waking up and feeding the cat, my sister would wake *me* up to feed the cat, in the hopes of, I don't know, training me. It might be a way of showing your brother how frustrated you are, and making him be more careful. *shrugs*

Icon love!
Thanks. The icon is by butterflyicons.

[pbanda.livejournal.com]

OMG killing a cat because it meows? I'm sorry but that's retarded. >:(

[paraka]

Yeah. God, I was sooo angry at them.

[edgyauthor.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow. I can't imagine putting down a cat just because it's loud! That's just...wrong.

[paraka]

I don't think they actually planned to go through with it, they just said it to try and get me to do something about about it. :(
After seeing how upset and angry I was by it though, they haven't said anything since.

[terribilita.livejournal.com]

God, sometimes I have moments just like this as well. There's so much going on at home, I feel like if I don't move out I'll really lose it. I hope that if you're really serious about moving out, that it works out for you. *hugs*

[paraka]

Well, now that things have settled down, and my family saw just how upset I was things have gotten a bit better, so I don't think I'll be rushing out the door for a place of my own. How long I stay here depends on some decisions I haven't made yet.
There will likely be a post soon, possible with a poll, where I ask my flist what I should do with the rest of my life, because god knows I suck at deciding on my own :S