Sneezes and Cats

 

An anecdote on why cats are never going to be allowed in my household

Everyone has pets. Everybody loves the warm embrace of their animals. Even before the advent of the pandemic, the idea of having a little animal pal has endeared millions of people around the world. Cats, dogs, fishes, birds, snakes…lizards? Rats?? Lion cubs? What next…Komodo Dragons?!I am joking, of course. Some people love embracing animals out of love towards nature and some relish the idea of having a furry companion for emotional support. It is a form of peace, entertainment and support in the form of a faithful animal.

My family had kept chicks and fishes. But the idea of having a cat as a pet was always shot down by both of my parents. It wasn’t the issue of hair fall or the care, rather, yours truly has a severe allergy to both fur and feather. My cousins had even kept rabbits through red and watery eyes but my family…not a chance.

I like animals. But with no opportunity to physically connect with them, I just can’t seem to adore them the way my sisters do. They go feral at the sight of cats (with my eldest sibling having gone as far as to pick up a stray cat off the streets without my parents noticing) and hopelessly keep pining for them. I even agreed to have a cat in our midst with feeble bravado but it was all in vain.

My fur allergy was discovered when a seven-year old me extracted her dusty shoes from our sandstorm-riddled balcony that was also a house for a beautiful, heterochromatic stray cat. My dust allergy kicked in first as my eyes felt irritated. Using the same hands with which I picked up my shoes, I rubbed my eyes. An hour after swollen eyes, an emergency anti-histamine, a doctor’s appointment, a head scan, eye checkup and a blood test later, I was issued a strict warning to not interact with pets. I forgot what I looked like with my bulging eyeballs but I suppose my brain chucked it off of my memory shelf because it presumed it would be too traumatic. 

Exactly eleven years later, my cat-loving best friend Haya threw a get-together at her house. I politely told her beforehand to keep her cats away from me. When I got there, one of her cats was found hiding behind the fridge eyeing all of us apprehensively and the other was just as chill as the previous cat was scared. The anti-social cat whom Haya lovingly calls ‘Bobu’ is a white Abyssinian cat-looking breed. He has light-brown patches on his white fur. The other cat, Grey, is a brown Persian and is highly social. Also, both of them were roaming every inch of their house and I was sitting on the mat with my allergy signals on high alert. My heart almost came in my throat when Grey casually stretched and settled right behind me. My monotone face displayed no emotion because I did not want to hurt her but seriously, the kitty’s hair were so luxurious, the air itself became occupied with her. By the end of our party, my eyes felt mildly irritated which confirmed my belief that my allergy hasn’t alleviated even after eleven years. After witnessing Bobu rub his whiskery face and body against Haya’s mom, I really wanted a cat. 

Feathers have also triggered me. We had kept three chicks after Covid’s traumatic first wave. One of them was taken away by a cat and the other two survived. One was red and the other was yellow. For the pure irony of it, my elder sister named the red chick as Mango and the yellow one as Moose. Chicks really have a proper routine since they start cheeping exactly at the crack of dawn and go to sleep at dusk. They were cute and all but as they grew up, they started flying out of their box exploring our entire house. As they grew up, their scent was starting to become stronger and I could feel the irritation it caused me.

They were soon given away. And yes, they died.

Fishes are a hassle to look after even though they are very pretty. Our goldfishes were discovered dead the next morning after they were bought from the store the day before. 

While it is very tempting to have a pet, it is unfair to the animal if we adopt it and then neglect its needs because we do not have the time for it. We had to give our chicks away when our schools started because there used to be nobody at home those days.

Author's note: Proper content is on its way as colleges have started and I am loaded with work. It will take a while for me to produce longer posts but I am working on it so please bear with it! Thank you for stopping by!