Cats: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

When we lived in Greenville, South Carolina, we had several cats and a couple of dogs as pets. One of our dogs, affectionately known as Charlie, was a beautiful standard poodle. But he became very jealous of the kids, and we finally sold him to a couple who had no children of their own. As it stands right now, we are down to one cat, and he is pictured here:


His name is Kitty Baby. Friends of ours in Greenville named their cat Kitty Baby, so we borrowed the name from them. Kitty Baby was rescued from the dumpster at our local McDonald's in 1993. Daniel was working there at the time, and he brought Kitty Baby home in a little shoe box. I determined to take the cat to the humane society the next day, but Nancy and the kids prevailed upon me to keep their cat. I did not take Kitty Baby to the humane society, and he is still with us to this day.

I must say that Kitty Baby is pretty selective about who he will allow to hold him. For some years, he was a male chauvinist cat, and he would not go to any female members of the family. Of course, when Peyton and Oscar come over to visit, Kitty Baby goes into deep hiding. He will have nothing to do with the grandchildren. He has mellowed out in his "old age," but he still has his preferences.

The reason that I even bring up Kitty Baby was an article in London's Daily Mail. It seems that some veterinarian in Brighton, England, decided to give Prozac to a cat named Twiglet. Acording to the article, "the patient would not go out for fear of being bullied, moped around the house and sought comfort in eating. The 12-year-old grey tabby, whose weight had ballooned to 15lb, became one of the first pets in Britain to be given anti-depressant drugs, on the advice of a vet who said she had 'anger management issues'. And the results have been dramatic. Five months later, Twiglet has lost almost 7lb and is roaming around the back garden without fear." I don't know about you, but medical science seems to have branched out a good bit over the years. You can check out Twiglet and her owner here:


And I close today's lesson on pets with a couple of photos of "bad-looking" cats. Perhaps these two need a little Prozac as well: