Feline pros and cons

Lately, I've been struggling with my relationship with our cat, Roscoe.

He's been a tremendous pain lately. Well, he's been a pain since we got him. I've always been a dog person, but Yvonne convinced me a cat would be easier in the city (we got him in Chicago). She was right about that. But right away, he would sneak outside when he was only a few weeks old. All the vets would scold us for it, but we really didn't have a choice. He screamed at the top of his lungs at 4am pretty much on a regular basis, whether he's indoors or outside. He still does that. He doesn't have a soft meow, it's always ear piercing. Like a true Chicagoan, he has no self volume control. And man, that cat sheds.

All these things I've mentioned before. But, now with Zoe around, it's become worse. I wonder if he's protesting the competition. Or, maybe it's his way of mourning for Sophi. She did raise him after all. But, he is constantly chewing up pacifiers and bottle nipples and meowing loudly when the baby is asleep.

This morning, we let him inside around 6:30am (our latest feeling is if he's going to scream at 4am, it's easier on us if he does it outside). After he ate a little, he instantly began parading the house and loudly announcing he wanted back out. He was inside not even five minutes. His parade began in the bedroom where Zoe was sleeping. I heard it on the baby monitor clear as day. I tsk tsked loudly for him (that's the only noise he responds to now because it's the only one that indicates he's not about to get squirt by water). His parade paced down the hall and hesitantly scanned the living room (he assumes he's in trouble, but he doesn't understand it's because he's loud as sh*t). After a bounce over the couch, his fanfare came to a loud climax and ended as soon as I opened the back door.

So those are the negatives.

On the positive side of things, he's affectionate when he wants to be. He's a great mouser. The photo above is the remains of a black bird he caught a few weeks back. All I found was a pile of feathers and what appeared to be a wing (above). I found a mouse on Monday. I found a rat a few weeks ago. Roscoe has an unlimited resource for rodents--the alley. And he's always been a great hunter. The dude caught a rabbit in Chicago. Crazy.

And, he's also a pretty cat. He has that going for him.