Mr. Artistic guy
Better Off This Way
If you're a tl;dr-er, don't bother.
So, I want to talk about what's bothering me.
Basically, for the last couple of weeks I've been looking after my sisters cat. I didn't ask to look after this cat, nor did I desire to and neither do I still. My sister lives in the same house as me. I look after the cat, because most of my family are allergic in some way and aren't capable of keeping a cat in their room or holding it etc... and my sister would not do so if I did not. In short, nobody else would. I therefore let her stay in my room and bring her to our living room when I can and nobody is there, making sure to clean up after her. I have bought for her; a litter tray, three different bags of cat litter, two boxes of cat food containing many satchels, a cat harness to get her used to the outside. My sister has bought for her; nothing. To date two people have offered her to take the cat off her hands, my half-sister who has a full-time job and two children plus a large house, and my sister's former partner.
This isn't an isolated case. She's recently returned from co-renting a house as a student, before very recently dropping out of university in the first year. She shared the building with her female partner of a year or so, for the last six months. In that time, in a house that said it would only accept rabbits as pets, she has acquired somehow or another for full-time care (few of which she may not own now); two goldfish, a puppy, a kitten, a plethora of rabbits which I'll talk you through now. She originally had three rabbits who were all male and all siblings, all black and white patched. She then bought another fully baby after a while. She bought a fully-grown white rabbit. She bought a fluffy white mother and baby. Most recently she bought a pair of girls, sisters, who get on along well. She also got another small brown one along the way.
Now it gets more complicated. There's been plenty of breeding during this time. The white fluffy mother was the first to have children I believe. She had eight and they were removed for the hutch almost right after birth for the whole day. They were returned hours later. The next morning the mother had killed them all. Now, I'm not an animal expert, but I understand you aren't supposed to remove a new-born animal from it's nest. Something to do with the scents and mothers rejecting their babies? Either way, from that time the rabbit was deemed to be a bad mother. Nonetheless, the same rabbit was allowed to have another slightly smaller litter. This time, however, the babies were removed and given to another rabbit who'd shortly before had a small litter herself, taking her tally up from about 3 to 10 babies. That in itself must've confused the fuck outta her. Several of these, surprisingly seen as most of them weren't hers anyway, were killed over the next few days also. I believe eventually, mercifully most of the survivors were siphoned off and sold to shops or rescues. She doesn't live on that house at current times but there is still a mother and a breed of 4 babies all living in the bathroom at the moment, surviving on a daily 10 minute visit and whatever food my sister happens to want to bring with her.
The treatment of these animals is another story. Their care ranged greatly, correlating strongly with how recently they were bought/born. Some rabbits were cared for almost round the clock. Older rabbits tended to be left in a hutch all day every day in the garden, never being let out to run around and having their cages cleared infrequently. In some cases, she kept rabbits not even in hutches, but in cardboard boxes that you use for transporting animals with no light and only food and water. One large rabbit was even left in a zip-up back only about twice her size with barely enough space to turn around. My sister's case of animals tends to range from acceptable (if you can get over the hitting of animals) to appalling, with the worst examples being simply left in small containers surrounded by their own faeces, a little bit of food and water and about 10 minutes attention, if that, on an average day. No drive to encourage physical exertion on their part. On her watch, almost 20 rabbits have died in six months and one fish. That's not a fantastic record is it?
So she recently split up with her partner of almost a year after their six month contract on their rented house shortly comes to and end and she has moved back in with us. The cat and dog now live in our house, although we never offered that they could! Most everyone takes turns with the dog, taking her for walks and such and spending time with here because she is less physically aggressive. The cat, on the other hand, is looked after by only me and sometimes my dad. She spends most of her time in the day sleeping, which of course is very manageable. At night, however, as cats often do, she becomes very active. She spends a great deal of her energy thinking that my arms are toys and I am slathered in cuts and bites up and down my forearms from her nigh time play fights. For the last week or more I've been averaging about 6 hours sleep and am woken often by a pain in my toe as she sinks her teeth into it at not far north of seven in the morning, although sometimes during the middle of the night also. To recap, I never asked to or wanted to look after this kitten, and am doing so for her benefit only because if I didn't nobody would.
The reason I'm telling you all of this is because I am tired and very frustrated and angry to a critical point now. I was in my room trying to watch over the cat and spend time with her as nobody else will whilst enduring the usual onslaught of claws and teeth. I continue to soldier through, though, as I excuse it all in the name of playing and after all she's still only quite young. Until just before, at about 11 o'clock when I could stand it no more. She launched up my arm and scratched me on my face. In a fit of anger I picked her up and threw her full-force across the room. Now she's understandably afraid of me, and I know it's not really her fault. She never asked for me, I never asked for her. I've told my sister that other people are willing to buy her, but in her totally bewildering, delusional manner, she refuses as she actually thinks she's not doing a bad job looking after the cat and because 'she bought her'. By all accounts now, she's lucky we haven't called the NSPCA on her because it's just that bad, she's only 19 for heaven's sake. I'm truly at my wits end now.
I'm not necessarily looking for advise, although I won't necessarily blindly defect any, I'm mainly just venting.
So, I want to talk about what's bothering me.
Basically, for the last couple of weeks I've been looking after my sisters cat. I didn't ask to look after this cat, nor did I desire to and neither do I still. My sister lives in the same house as me. I look after the cat, because most of my family are allergic in some way and aren't capable of keeping a cat in their room or holding it etc... and my sister would not do so if I did not. In short, nobody else would. I therefore let her stay in my room and bring her to our living room when I can and nobody is there, making sure to clean up after her. I have bought for her; a litter tray, three different bags of cat litter, two boxes of cat food containing many satchels, a cat harness to get her used to the outside. My sister has bought for her; nothing. To date two people have offered her to take the cat off her hands, my half-sister who has a full-time job and two children plus a large house, and my sister's former partner.
This isn't an isolated case. She's recently returned from co-renting a house as a student, before very recently dropping out of university in the first year. She shared the building with her female partner of a year or so, for the last six months. In that time, in a house that said it would only accept rabbits as pets, she has acquired somehow or another for full-time care (few of which she may not own now); two goldfish, a puppy, a kitten, a plethora of rabbits which I'll talk you through now. She originally had three rabbits who were all male and all siblings, all black and white patched. She then bought another fully baby after a while. She bought a fully-grown white rabbit. She bought a fluffy white mother and baby. Most recently she bought a pair of girls, sisters, who get on along well. She also got another small brown one along the way.
Now it gets more complicated. There's been plenty of breeding during this time. The white fluffy mother was the first to have children I believe. She had eight and they were removed for the hutch almost right after birth for the whole day. They were returned hours later. The next morning the mother had killed them all. Now, I'm not an animal expert, but I understand you aren't supposed to remove a new-born animal from it's nest. Something to do with the scents and mothers rejecting their babies? Either way, from that time the rabbit was deemed to be a bad mother. Nonetheless, the same rabbit was allowed to have another slightly smaller litter. This time, however, the babies were removed and given to another rabbit who'd shortly before had a small litter herself, taking her tally up from about 3 to 10 babies. That in itself must've confused the fuck outta her. Several of these, surprisingly seen as most of them weren't hers anyway, were killed over the next few days also. I believe eventually, mercifully most of the survivors were siphoned off and sold to shops or rescues. She doesn't live on that house at current times but there is still a mother and a breed of 4 babies all living in the bathroom at the moment, surviving on a daily 10 minute visit and whatever food my sister happens to want to bring with her.
The treatment of these animals is another story. Their care ranged greatly, correlating strongly with how recently they were bought/born. Some rabbits were cared for almost round the clock. Older rabbits tended to be left in a hutch all day every day in the garden, never being let out to run around and having their cages cleared infrequently. In some cases, she kept rabbits not even in hutches, but in cardboard boxes that you use for transporting animals with no light and only food and water. One large rabbit was even left in a zip-up back only about twice her size with barely enough space to turn around. My sister's case of animals tends to range from acceptable (if you can get over the hitting of animals) to appalling, with the worst examples being simply left in small containers surrounded by their own faeces, a little bit of food and water and about 10 minutes attention, if that, on an average day. No drive to encourage physical exertion on their part. On her watch, almost 20 rabbits have died in six months and one fish. That's not a fantastic record is it?
So she recently split up with her partner of almost a year after their six month contract on their rented house shortly comes to and end and she has moved back in with us. The cat and dog now live in our house, although we never offered that they could! Most everyone takes turns with the dog, taking her for walks and such and spending time with here because she is less physically aggressive. The cat, on the other hand, is looked after by only me and sometimes my dad. She spends most of her time in the day sleeping, which of course is very manageable. At night, however, as cats often do, she becomes very active. She spends a great deal of her energy thinking that my arms are toys and I am slathered in cuts and bites up and down my forearms from her nigh time play fights. For the last week or more I've been averaging about 6 hours sleep and am woken often by a pain in my toe as she sinks her teeth into it at not far north of seven in the morning, although sometimes during the middle of the night also. To recap, I never asked to or wanted to look after this kitten, and am doing so for her benefit only because if I didn't nobody would.
The reason I'm telling you all of this is because I am tired and very frustrated and angry to a critical point now. I was in my room trying to watch over the cat and spend time with her as nobody else will whilst enduring the usual onslaught of claws and teeth. I continue to soldier through, though, as I excuse it all in the name of playing and after all she's still only quite young. Until just before, at about 11 o'clock when I could stand it no more. She launched up my arm and scratched me on my face. In a fit of anger I picked her up and threw her full-force across the room. Now she's understandably afraid of me, and I know it's not really her fault. She never asked for me, I never asked for her. I've told my sister that other people are willing to buy her, but in her totally bewildering, delusional manner, she refuses as she actually thinks she's not doing a bad job looking after the cat and because 'she bought her'. By all accounts now, she's lucky we haven't called the NSPCA on her because it's just that bad, she's only 19 for heaven's sake. I'm truly at my wits end now.
I'm not necessarily looking for advise, although I won't necessarily blindly defect any, I'm mainly just venting.
