Cats.

I used to have dreams of owning a cat once my dog died (he has now lived beyond anyone's expectations. Go Nipper!). Cats always seemed to be the more lax version of dogs; lazing, sun bathing, cuddly fur balls. I had visions of my cat, Moose, as it would be named, and I, sitting on my bed under the warmth of the sun while I drew fantastic fashion illustrations. I would teach Moose to fetch the paper, and we would sit and read it together as I drank ice tea. I would come home on rainy days from uni and find Moose curled up on the end of my bed, and we would sit and watch High School Musical and sing along to all of the songs together.

Not anymore. Today I realised, I don't want to be a fashion illustrator. I don't like ice tea. And cats can't sing. 

One week ago, one of my housemates friends went on exchange for three months until September, and left two cats in Bordeaux. After checking with us that it was fine (I was more than excited), our home became theres and we became first cat home owners. The very next morning, I awoke to awful scratching on my bedroom door. I knew what to do. I thought if I lay there, it would take the hint and go away (like Nipper). Unfortunately, cats don't. This cat kept going, until my housemate with the room next to mine, got up and told it to go away. Nb, the door scratching hasn't happened again. The cats and I were already off to a bad start. The next day, I went to use the toilet and noticed cat hair on the inside of the bowl. Now I'm afraid to touch them knowing that they've been in the toilet. We also keep the lid down at all times now. 

That afternoon, I walked into the living room to find one of them sitting on the kitchen bench. Toilet cat where I prepare my food! If anything, that experience has made me pedantic about food preparation to the point where today I was putting my dinner onto the plate and ended up putting my cutlery into my pockets so I didn't forget to not put it on the bench. 

But, the worst experience by far way this morning. I was the first to awake and, upon entering the kitchen, I found one of the cats had been terrorising the fish during the night and knocked the fish food flakes onto the floor which had smashed the container and gone everywhere. Said cat had then proceeded to run several times through the flakes, trailing them all around the living room. 

This has turned me off cats for a while. Probably forever. While mi casa es su casa, mi casa es no catsa. 

This all being said, and me teetering on the scale between dislike and contempt for cats, these ones are pretty chill when it comes to every other experience besides those mentioned in this post. One of them hides all the time (which makes it easier to deduce which cat has been up to no good), and the other sleeps in a chair all day when it's not wreaking havoc on household items. 

I'm totally fine with cats as animals. But once these guys are gone, I could never own another cat. They're welcome to stay for the next few months, but my dreams of owning the Julie Andrews of cats have now been shattered. I'll probably just stick to dogs, or ferrets.

P.S. I probably don't actually hate cats. This post was most likely fuelled by this mornings events.

P.P.S. At least I'm now guaranteed of not becoming the crazy cat lady!

In other news, my habit of walking the streets at night has now become a nightly occurrence. Because it gets dark so late here (about 10pm), it's hard to keep sitting inside once it gets to about 8pm. I go out during the day, and arrive home for dinner. But a few hours later, I need to go out again. With 5 of the Bordeaux 7 off travelling the world already, I can't just walk around to Jason's house and annoy him. So, I do more walking. I've discovered heaps of stuff about the streets around the back of my house, never walking the same route twice, which is surprisingly very easy. It's also French dinner time when I'm out, so I can pretend the world naturally smells like fresh baked bread and meat stews.

Discovered this on an evening walk

OH! And, checkout what I purchased yesterday!