B E B E R E

Girl cat is very sick. Through some (in my opinion, extreme) heroics, she's been given another few months. This comes with a price, though: four different medications administered first three times, then twice daily. Girl cat does not like me much. She dislikes me even more when I'm trying to administer pills. She is very stubborn as well, often holding the pills in her mouth and pretending to swallow as many times as she thinks necessary to convince me to let her go. When free, she scuttles across the room and, looking at me all the while, spits the medicine out.

Since she's a serious fighter, I'm scared to death of either breaking her jaw or her neck during these wrestling matches. However, she's no compunction against biting me or scratching me up (even under a towel). I feel seriously out manned here. My hands are poked full of holes where the claws have dug in.

***

A dead French guy once said that, to better understand human nature in action, all one had to do was to observe a couple cats under close quarters. I agree, and will even go so far as to say that one can experience a lot with just one cat under close enough quarters. My struggles with girl cat are, in essence, the distillation of most of my interpersonal relations.