Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Which One is Hooch?

In 1989, Tom Hanks starred in a movie called Turner & Hooch, about a small city police detective who takes in a huge, ungainly and slovenly dog. Hanks’s character is very fastidious, almost a neat-freak. The dog is his antithesis. Needless to write, the two become good friends, and Hanks grows, if not less neat, then less unforgiving of hygienic trespass.

This, I have found, is similar to my life. I was never as much of a fanatic for cleanliness as Hanks was in the film. Few are in real life, as his character was exaggerated a bit for the purposes of comedic effect. Nonetheless, I think back to the days before I had a cat, or at least to the days when I had just one or two, and I see a change.

It is not that I am less clean. People remark on how clean my apartment is, even though I have several cats. I suppose they must expect droppings and vomit left all over the floor, or perhaps cats smoking cigarettes and tapping the ash onto the carpets. I sweep and vacuum, I dust and wash. But my attitudes are not what they used to be.

Now, when I find a cat-hair on my dishes, or even in my food, I am not disgusted. I don’t sterilise the bowl immediately or get another one to use. I let the cats on the dining table, though I wash it thoroughly before food is placed on it (my food; I don’t wash it before I put their food there.) I have lint rollers placed all over the residence like a stereotyped great-aunt from a 1940s film who likes a secret nip from bottles she thinks she keeps secret. But if I see cat-hair on my shirt, I don’t immediately leap to remove it. In fact, I find cat-hairs on newly washed and dried clothes and simply wonder where they found the time to appear there. While preparing meals, I talk to other cat-people about feline digestion and waste disposal. I pick up any stray kernels of litter a beast may have tracked from the boxes, but don’t fret about the germs that may be attached. After all, my cats lick me with affection, and I can guess what it was they had licked just prior to that.

So, while I sigh when the westering sun shines on my floors and makes the linoleum looks as if it’s a shag rug, and despair over yet another regurgitation that just missed the cheap mat I laid down over the apartment’s fitted carpets, I don’t worry overly much. It’s part of the evolution of the feline-fancier. Though I don’t suppose Hollywood will make a movie about it.

18 comments:

  1. I know exactly how you feel. I remember before I ever had a cat, I was about 20 and my boss's cat was licking her yogurt and I was repulsed. Now I would think nothing of eating something after the cat licked it. :)

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  2. Good post! I know I can relate: life before Chumley and Annie (and of course now the boys) and life after.

    I had ponies while growing up, though, and took care of our neighbour's work horse, plus we always had a dog, so as a child pet fur and general country-life dirt were everywhere.

    Out on my own, as a young adult and then living with my then-partner, I didn't have to contend with pet barf, hair, etc. I would say it's definitely been an evolution in the past 16 years, life with cats again. For me, more so than pet hair or pet waste, it's the take-over of my home by cat trees, cat scratchers, cat toys, cat everything. So that my design "style", such as it is (ha), has been pushed aside in favour of the cats' comfort. That niggles at me sometimes, as I look around and think what I'd do if I didn't have to accommodate them.

    But then, my life would be so much poorer of heart without them. :-)

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    1. When Admiral passed away, there was nothing on the floors or anywhere i the house. The house looked supremely clean and just GREAT. But it was empty of the love that had walked through it all day and night. Each day I walked back into the house there was a cold emptiness to greet me.

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    2. The toys and cat-furniture are part of our loved ones, like a human's books or a jacket thrown aside. They let us know our family is still with us. It's heavily sad when those have to be picked up and packed away.

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  3. Like you, I've also changed my ideas about cleanliness. When you live with multiple cats, it's impossible to keep up with the cat hair, which cat jumped up on the dining room table, who was counter surfing, etc. My feeling is that this is my cats' home. They belong here. You don't. So if anyone has a problem with my housekeeping, please don't visit me. That said, I do keep a clean apartment, (I keep up with the litter boxes so you will not smell cat), but it is not operating room sterile. Luckily most of my friends are animal lovers!!

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  4. MOL Mommy can so relate. Altho' her accident and ensuin' disability played a pawrt in her lax attitude, da entry of more than one kitty also played a big pawrt. Big hugs

    Luv ya'

    Dezi and Raena

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  5. guyz.....rather a fur filled home than one petz; well, we dont meen like furz three inchez thick on everee thing...just two !! ♥♥☺☺

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  6. Best line ever: I let the cats on the dining table, though I wash it thoroughly before food is placed on it (my food; I don’t wash it before I put their food there.)

    Mom stopped freaking out about stuff a long time ago. Though she does have a ton of stuff stacked on the kitchen counter in an attempt to keep a certain couple of cats off.

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  7. We feel the same here. A bit of fur, a missed spot of this or that and it will get cleaned but no worries whatsoever

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  8. The vision of the cats sat around smoking made me laugh! Of course Cammie would use an elegant silver cigarette holder.

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  9. Actually, The Hubby has changed more in this way than I. Poop or hairball would send him off the deep end once, but no longer. Seriously...'poop happens' is his new mantra!

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  10. Cats change you, that's for sure. I used to be so prissy about my bed and bed linens. Now I have cats on, in and under my bed. They're under the covers and sleeping wrapped around my head. Sometimes I find myself literally hanging over an edge of my bed, crowded out by kitties. Prissy has obviously gone out the window.

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    1. I think I notice the hair on the bedspread the most. Fortunately, a turn in the washing machine, then another in the dryer takes care of that. The lint trap is full, and the bedspread is ready for another load. And I couldn't stand not having at least some of the cats sleeping with me on the bed.

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  11. Loved this blog today and the responses. Started my day VERY well. And I loved the humor you wrote with too.

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  12. Last night I heard rustling coming from the kitchen. I could hear the selected item from the garbage bin - a plastic container that had cherry tomatoes in it - moving around the apartment. I didn't bother to get out of bed to put it back in the garbage - too lazy to bother with picking after Holly's forays into the garbage.

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    1. That's how I am. Unless I think they are in actual danger, or about to vomit (and not always for the latter), I stay in bed.

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  13. My mom joins your club =^x^=
    Me is a semi-long fur cat, and right now I live in hot humid country. Imagine that ! ...lol
    My dad's friends is coming to visit us soon and they stay with us ( we don't know when yet ), My mom got no idea how they can handle my fur...tee...heh... No way they can skip my fur. It's everywhere =^x^=

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