Even my cats are mentally ill

Warning- This is a stupid post about my failures as a pet parent that has no real point. You will never get back the 5 min it will take to read this. Sorry. Please feel free to ignore. I think I just want to hear myself speak.

They say that people who grow up in a house with mental illness and addiction often end up with problems of their own bc of their environment. The whole nature/nurture thing. So, I think I made my cats crazy! I raised my pets and they caught a little of my mental illness.

My cats are my shadows, never out of sight or in a different room than me. On my lap in the recliner, on my pillow when I go to sleep. I have raised two very CODEPENDENT cats! Even as I write this the old man won't stop butting his head against me and forcing me to pet him! And he gets SEPARATION ANXIETY whenever I am gone too long or go away on vacation- he drags my clothes all over the house until I return.

The kitten is NEUROTIC. He loves to play fetch and retrieve stuff and run around like a lunatic. And I will find all sorts of cat toys and random household items that he carries in his mouth and deposits in my bed. I just took a bubble bath and the kitten sat on the ledge of the bathtub the whole time, keeping me company. He swatted at the bubbles, with his giant fluffy tail just sitting on top of the bubbles getting wet. Then he slipped and fell in, getting his back end all soaked. And he just came bAck for more. He will periodically ambush me and the old gray boy when we are walking around a corner.

So yeah, I think I might have messed up my cats a little bit. Maybe I just love too hard... On another note though, when I had sui ideation my cats were the only things that stopped me at times. That sounds terrible, that I didn't think of my family but couldn't bear to leave my cats. I just knew nobody else would love them as much as me. And I didn't want them to have to eat my face off in case nobody noticed I was gone for a while.

I want to get a dog in the next year or two. I love the idea of having a dog- somebody to greet me at the door, a travel buddy who I can drive places with, go hiking with, go for car rides with me singing to the radio and him flapping his ears in the wind out the open window. Getting him bandanas for each holiday. I can see how happy Rover and I could be.

But all i have ever had is cats. I don't know if I am really dog-like in personality. They are very high maintenance. They bark and drool and want to kiss on the lips. Dogs require you to leave the house, go on early am walks in the cold, force you to interact with other dog people on the street. I fear I will end up raising a defective outcast doggie. The neighbors will point and laugh at us when I walk him and whisper about how misbehaved he is. None of the people at the dog park will let us play their reindeer games. He will end up with a complex. Sigh.

we have 2 cats also!
they are a lot of fun.
hattie and hazel
bizi

I want a dog too but I'd have to pay extra rent.

What a charming story about your cats! They sound adorable! I have a dog and while i love her a whole big bunch she is a lot of work and sometimes i wish i'd gotten a cat. Taking her out is a big bore.

Just be thankful your cat only drags out your own clothes. There was a cat named Dusty who was a veritable Klepto-Kitty. He goes out at night and steals just about anything and everything from his guardian's neighbors and friends. Underwear (men's, women's and children's), shoes, sponges, socks, stuffed animals, kids' toys, and tools. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg, as his owners have a whole room dedicated for displaying Dusty's stolen goods. I think there was over 500 items or so in the collection. At any rate, the neighbors are more than welcome to come on over and search the collection if they can't find a certain possession in their home.



Besides, if there's any cat who has a mental health condition it's mine. He was dumped with his litter at 2-3 weeks old at an animal shelter, and my mom and I bottle-fed him along with his brother. After a while, our dog wanted in on the action, so we allowed her to lick them clean after we bottle-fed them (they made a huge mess of themselves when doing that). I guess the kittens grew up thinking they were dogs from then on out, because Oscar, that's what we named him, always plays with dogs, but never really liked any other cats, other than his brother. He even acts dog-like in a way. Talk about having an identity crises.

Your cats sound cute. The younger one sounds like he's probably pretty mentally healthy! Especially if he's literally a kitten, because that means he's the cat equivalent of a child, and children are supposed to be pretty crazy.

Back when I had pet rats, some of them had issues.

My cats were neurotic too. That's what made it so easy to love them...we all suffered from the same thing. Haha!

But I swear my dog is bipolar. She gets a wild hair up her butt during the spring and summer and is a lot more active than usual. Then she acts all depressed in the winter and spends most of her time sleeping by the pellet stove, trying to stay warm just like me. She also gets irritated when I have to leash her up to go outside and do her business, and has been known to nip at me. I don't blame her. I don't want to go outside in the cold either!

They sound like loving, healthy cats to me! And I have had many dogs with behavioral issues like aggression or separation anxiety, they are still total sweeties. Even "messed up" dogs are great dogs :-) Please don't worry about "messing up" a doggie, the only way to do that really is to abuse them, which I'm sure you wouldn't do. Even then, an abused dog will be loving and sweet in a safer environment, even if they have certain special needs and can't be around kids or touched on their ears or something. Animals are very resilient and I feel really badly that you feel like you could harm one without meaning to, if you don't want to there's a good chance you won't, and if they have mental scars from someone else they can still be loving companions :-) It's actually really good for mentally ill people to have dogs, if you can manage to not neglect a cat it will be the same with a dog and you'll also get more affection, plus the animal will even encourage you to leave the house more.

Aw, your kitties are so lucky to have a person who loves them as much as you clearly do. I have five cats myself

`Cats` I love them. Independent (When they want to be!) Clean and playful!
Had a male cat once, (No identity) it thought it was an ostrich! Cause every time I shouted at it (Clawing my settee) it used to bury its` head in the cushion and leave its` backside sticking out! Went out one day and never came back!!

I have a cat who's neurotic. When we trying to accommodate another cat, she hissed and growled the whole time. She was upset to the point of having part of her intestines inflamed. We rehomed the other cat. She now puts up with my daughter's cat. She freaks out at my husband being around.

My daughter's cat isn't neurotic but is very territorial. We can't set up boxes for the cats to play in because she would try to guard them all.

Still good cats and still want them around.

Thanks for sharing all your cat and dog stories!
I suppose my kitties mental quirks are what make them so fun. I just always thought cats were supposed to be independent. I raised very needy kitties.

I definitely have more of a cat personality, but maybe one day I will finally get my doggie.

My sisters kittens are nuts. When they were here they tore up everything in my room is wanted them gone despite being adorable oddly my cat did to and as I'm sitting here my cat is trying to knock my tablet out of my hand