Re: the cats

From Facebook:

Zara TabiBill T Sanders: Hey Billy! totally random question… but how did you accquire your cats?

I was going to answer on Facebook, but the reply was so long I decided I might as well post it to my blog.

(Cat #1) Tyler Durden (named after the guy in Fight Club) I got a few months (Around July 2002) after I started working at Petco.  Some asshole walked up to my register with a box, set it on the counter, walked out without saying a word, and then peeled out of the parking lot.

I opened the box and there was this filthy flea-ridden, worm-infested, mangy excuse for a kitten, still probably too young to be away from his mother.  So I had to take him home.  The first week he slept on my back, right between my shoulder blades.  The next week is when the attacks began…

(Cat #2) Kal’El I acquired (around April[?] 2003) when I was living with Mollie.  Tyler was absolutely batshit crazy at this point and she really wanted a puppy but decided she could settle for a “lap cat”.  So we went out and got a kitten (LOL) from someone who was giving them away.  I picked Kal’El because he was just walking around and randomly fell over.

Tyler almost instantly was repulsed by Kal’El.  This revulsion gradually turned into hatred.  He used to grab him by the scruff of the neck and drag him away from the water dish if he tried to get something to drink.

Eventually (I think it was about 3 days later) Mollie realized that kittens make terrible lap cats, and also that they are living terrors in the middle of the night.  So she started closing her door at night, leaving both of them to brawl in the rest of the apartment – including my room, which I wasn’t allowed (by the cats) to leave open.