Cat-Food Lessons
I hate finding caked cat dishes in the kitchen sink
along with ours. I'm not sure why this pushes my
buttons so strongly, but it does. Perhaps it comes
from not having had a pet when I was growing up. Or
maybe I think it's a public health threat (you know,
viruses and the like). When I choose to clean the
cats' bowls, I first clean the whole sink of our dishes,
then I wash theirs. Anyway, I don't like it when I find
dirty cat dishes in the sink, and I react right away
when I do.
First I get angry. Then the anger gets more personal
and I find myself directing it at whoever I think is the
culprit, which is usually my wife, Myla. I feel hurt
because she doesn't respect my feelings. I tell her on
countless occasions that I don't like it, that it disgusts
me. I've asked her as politely as I know how not do it,
but she often does it anyway. She feels I'm being silly
and compulsive, and when she's pressed for time,
she just leaves the caked cat dishes soaking in the
sink.
My discovery of cat food in the sink can quickly
escalate to a heated dispute, mostly because I am
feeling angry and hurt and above all justified in "my"