A Cat-astrophic Decision

We adopted Fergus almost 5 years ago. I think he's been a delightful little man. However, he has also been a crazy little tyrant. He's an alpha male so, he thinks he should be in charge and he's not afraid of letting people know this. Most times, he kowtows to me because I like it when he sleeps at my feet and he knows that it's me who feeds him.

Owning a cat has had it's frustrations. When left alone too often or kept inside too much (read cold, cold winters), Fergus takes out his pent up energy on our baseboards. We have chew marks along most of them. Also, he likes to jump as high as he can to catch the reflection of lights that shine on our walls whenever a car drives by. This has led to surprisingly high scratch marks on our walls. Our love seat is currently in the repair shop for some basic warranty work and we figured that, since it was in there, we'd get it the leather fixed. Good old Fergus happens to scratch it with his back claws whenever he jumps up to see out the window and our loveseat is a mess.

Unfortunately, small children and a grumpy, alpha male cat are not the best mix in an 1100 sq ft house. My own kids are pretty good at reading Fergus and his moods. Fergus also knows them and can predict them. Other people's kids are not so good for Fergus. Most of them want to touch him (he's really beautiful - and fluffy). They chase him and reach their hands out to him and try to touch him. If he can hide or if I can catch him and put him outside or shoo him to the basement, things are okay. If a kid corners him, he hisses and bats at them. This action sends most small children into hysterics and puts most visiting Mommas into Momma-Bear mode. I'm usually left defending Fergus or, after calming him down, putting him outside or shooing him to the basement.

I won't even begin to lament about cat hair... oh wait, I did that here.

When we move to our Someday House, we have an option to let Fergus move to my parents' farm. He'll be able to roam the countryside and have a nice, heated garage to take shelter in. I'm sure he'll catch his share of mice and birds and romp to his little heart's content. We're probably going to take them up on this option. My little gangsta is going to be movin' to the country.

It makes sense.

However, I'm really sad about it. As much of a pain as he is, I'm going to miss my little fur ball.