Monday is a day I dread. Not Monday per se. Just this Monday. It is periodic inspection day. I hate rental inspections. It’s not that I have anything to hide; there are no stains on the carpet, or chunks missing from walls or broken appliances. It’s that a stranger comes, walks around my home and then looks down on me. Last time it was that I hadn’t cleaned the track on my sliding doors. The time before that it was that the top of my kitchen cupboards were dusty. I’m surprised that they haven’t said I’ve deposited too much belly button lint in the shower recess.
And to avoid these comments, which really seem inevitable as they always find SOMETHING to complain about, I run around for several days beforehand madly cleaning. It does not make for a relaxing weekend. The much hated rental inspection is one of the reasons I dream of owning my own place one day; or at least paying a bank a ridiculously large sum of money for it over decades of my life. Wouldn’t it be lovely if no one sneered at my dust every six months? If I could put those wave style cat beds in the walls for the girls to lounge in as they see fit? If I could hang my pictures with something more secure than a sticky hook or blutac?
At least this time, the girls will be spared inspection. They are staying at Andrew’s place until Monday afternoon. I’m letting him enjoy the experience of 4 cats in a small space for a while. I’m hoping that he will no longer tell me that he’d love a black cat to go with the white cat and the ginger cat, as he will realise more than two is chaos. At any rate, his one cat of each colour just won’t cut it as I think there are at least 6 ‘colours’ of cat. Moggy cats that is. I’m not talking your fancy schmancy cats. Just the garden variety. It must be at least 6: Black, White, Ginger, Grey, Tabby and, the magnificent, tortoise shells. (I’m not at all biased). I’ve been carefully doing a stocktake of cats in my life. I think there have been:
- 2 gingers
- 1 tabby
- 2 black
- 1 black & white
- 1 grey & white
- 1 deaf and white
- 1 calico
- 4 torties – 1 grey tortie; 1 tortie plus white (chilli pictured) and 2 dark torties
Mum, what was streisand? (Besides a cat with a bad nose) Anyway, the purpose behind this cat stocktake is I’ve started to wonder whether ginger ninjas aren’t the most social of cats? I was about to say that I’ve never had a ginger cat before Pickle but then I realised, there was another (not called Skywalker). Yet I have no memory of the other ginger. Mum and Dad got him with the house. Buy a house, get a cat.
Hmm… I wonder if I ever manage to own a place – and avoid inspections – whether I too will get a property complete with bonus cat? I hope not. If I did that, I’d have to let Andrew have a black one. My mantra at the moment is 2 ‘children’ each!
If this post wasn’t incoherent enough, I have one last tangent. Why is the tagging helper suggesting I add “race and ethnicity in the United States census”?
a) I’m not in the United states
b) I said I was doing a stocktake; not a census
c) I’m not sure cat colours qualify as race or ethnicity
d) yes, I’m avoiding writing that blog post with 42 words in it. Combobulate has me stumped. Not to mention anthropomorphism.
What say you?
