Last week Cruz got into a cat fight with one of the neighborhood cats, and it didn’t end well. He got bit by another cat (presumably) in his right arm. A few days later (presumably) he started limping around. That’s when Zack and I realized that his right arm was swollen to the size of a golf ball, and he needed some help.

One trip to the vet later, Cruz had his 4th (I think? It’s hard to keep count?)  I-and-D (incision and drainage) for a massive, deep infection in his arm from the bite. “A cat bite is like a bacteria injection,” said the vet. And, best we can tell, the vet knows a thing or two about animals. Anyway, Cruz got his arm sliced open, a bunch of junk drained out of it, and a bottle full of cat antibiotics.

I, on the other hand, got fed up of paying to have my cat sliced open cause he can’t learn how to settle disagreements in an amicable manner. I mean, seriously. How hard is it to talk it out?

So, today I spent a few hours cleaning out the junk that has been piling up in the laundry room so as to make room for the Cat Stuff. Cruz, being mostly an outdoor cat, did not formerly require a lot of “stuff.” He went outside to go to the bathroom, didn’t care for any beds, or treats, or special treatment. He just wanted to come inside once or twice a day to grab some cat food and perhaps some milk if it happened to be the time of day when one of his owners was munching down on some cheerios. But I’m tired of Cruz having to have pseudo-surgeries every 6 months, and I’m tired of him being a flea-bag every time I (lazily) forget to apply his flea meds in a timely manner. I have done what any reasonable (and lazy) owner would do in this situation. I have made Cruz an indoor cat.

Trick is, Cruz doesn’t like being an indoor cat. First of all, I bathed him today. He hates that. He really, really hates that. And secondly, I won’t let him outside. He hates that even more than he hates being bathed.

Do you know what Cruz does when he hates things? He complains about them. And he complains about them loudly. Kind of like this:

Wish me luck. The next… however long it takes to break a cat… is going to be rough. Really, really rough.