I've had a few previous run-ins with cats. Most of the meetings were with cats in the neighborhood, except for two occasions, one at my mom's friend's house and another at a Humane Society. Cats have never seemed to like me much. They either stare at me suspiciously and run off if I try to approach, or they keep turning away from me to show their disinterest. In fact, my parents' friend's cat even bared its teeth (though I'd heard that he - or was it she? - didn't like people much to begin with) when I attempted to get friendly with it.

So I wasn't quite sure if I really ought to be volunteering to help out with a Town Cats event at PetCo. It was an adoption fair for cats, and I was supposed to be helping with the cleanup - dismantling the cages and that sort of thing. I figured I might as well go. Despite all of my cajoling for the past couple of years, I have still been unable to convince my mother that we ought to get a cat or dog. It's probably because of one of these reasons...

1. My mom never liked cats or dogs much. It seems that her side of our family isn't fond of animals in general, since they didn't have pets when my mom was young.

2. No one has time to take care of it. There's no one to feed lunch to a cat or dog, and if we got a dog we'd have to walk it every day. (I think that'd be good exercise, but it is time-consuming.) Cats are lower maintenance, but as my mother considers them to be rather disloyal and not as useful (for instance, dogs could guard the house while we're away), that's out of the question. I don't think my mom has ever really spent time with a cat, though, so how would she know?

3. My mom is afraid of dogs. She thinks that the big ones are scary and that they will bite her. It's ridiculous considering that she's never even been bitten. And I don't think it's good to be judging animals' temperaments by their sizes. I've told her to pet dogs, that they won't hurt her, but she always refuses.

4. I'm allergic to cats, so I can't have one. Three times I have gotten rashes after coming in contact with cats. Of course, it's not life-threatening, I could still have a cat, but it sure would be annoying suffering from allergies all the time. (And since cats don't like me, I think I'd get along better with a dog.)

5. My dad is allergic to dogs, according to the doctor. I might've mentioned this in an old post. The doctor told him that he's allergic to dogs (guess he found out by giving my dad an injection of something doggish - yeah, I know, that's not a real word - and deduced that he's allergic) but I have never seen him react to dogs. So it's probably a lie. But I don't know for sure.

Anyways, I've wanted to have a dog since about second grade, though I didn't start to nag often until middle school. But even after years and years, I have not managed to convince my mom. She half-jokingly made an offer to me many years ago, saying that if I quit going on the Internet, I could have a dog. I suspect that she only offered that to me because she didn't think I would be able to do it. I have considered quitting the computer (except for homework purposes, I suppose) so that I can have a dog, but I'm not completely sure she would hold up her end of the bargain. Besides, there are lots of things on the Internet that I still want to do - post on my blog, for one. And so I am still stuck in this dogless, catless state. I'll probably be like this until I move out (my mother is always saying I can have a dog...when I'm an adult. It's rather frustrating. She says I'm not responsible enough to take care of one anyways, since I've broken my DS and a camera, as well as lost a jacket, homework assignments, and various other things).

Labels: adoption, allergies, animals, cat, deal, dog, fair, family, internet, mother, pet, petco, reasons, town cats

Recently, my household had two visitors. One of them was a guy who lives in Shanghai who is here in California on a business trip, and he was a university classmate of my mother. And the other one was my grandma's friend's son, who is currently studying in San Francisco for his master's degree. Both of them came at the same time.

The younger guy, the one who resides in San Francisco, always insists on using an honorific to address my mother. (I guess you would call it an honorific, but I'm not sure what it should really be called) He previously used the title that means older sister, but that seems nonsensical seeing as my mom is the same age as his mom. So he changed to saying a word that means aunt after her name instead. My mom says that he can just call her by her name, forget the honorifics, but he still went with the aunt word.

I remember when I was younger, still in elementary school, my aunt, uncle, and cousins came over to stay at our house during the summer. I was really annoyed by having them around at that time. For one thing, they kept calling me by my name followed by the word that means older sister. I never understood it because I'm not their sister, so I insisted they just use my name, nothing else, but it was pretty hard for them to manage that. I guess in Mandarin and the Shanghai dialect there isn't a way to address your cousin. Or maybe cousins are considered to be like siblings.

Also, there was the time that my cousin was threatening to turn off my Gamecube. I was afraid he would really do it. I sat on him so he wouldn't be able to touch the button. However, this was very traumatizing to him (maybe I was really heavy and cut off his circulation?) and he ran to his mother saying I had hit him. I denied it, but I wasn't able to explain myself since I wasn't fluent enough in Chinese (and at the time, I couldn't speak French; my aunt's family lives in Paris).

My mom said my cousins would grow more mature with time, but they haven't improved all that much. A few years ago, I went on vacation to Europe and visited my aunt's family in Paris. The cousins were irrepressible as always and insisted on sitting next to me in the car and playing my Nintendo DS. (I think they have their own DS now, though) One time my cousin sneezed on it, which was really disgusting. Anyhow, if I didn't sit next to them in the car they would throw a fit. (I didn't want to put up with their antics so I sat in the back next to my grandma and mom, meaning to take a nap, but not managing it)

My family has been considering another vacation to Europe, except we want to see different places there, like perhaps Barcelona, Spain, or Italy (though people say Barcelona is better...Hmm. If you've been there, let me know what you think). We'll probably be taking a cruise since we haven't been on one since I was still in elementary school. It'll be in the summertime, which is best for me, as I won't be stressed from school. Unfortunately, if I go to Europe I will have to visit my cousins. My mom got annoyed and said that I could just go home early and not stop by Paris, while she visited her sister, but then I can't really fall asleep if my mom isn't there. I guess I have a mother complex.

On to other matters. Today, it was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, so both my dad and I had the day off. (Most people are still working today, because they usually get Presidents' Day off, but my dad's company is an exception.) We went to various places, like REI, Any Mountain, Jamba Juice, Whole Foods, Petco, and Petsmart. I was looking for a hat to buy for Yosemite because apparently it's going to be cold and the one place you can lose heat the most easily is through your head. I was meaning to get one of those with earflaps because I thought it'd be better for keeping my ears warm. (They have to be fairly warm. When my ears get cold, I get headaches.) I picked one hat from REI and one from Any Mountain and decided I would let my mom make the decision since I have no idea which one I like better.

I haven't been to Petco for a long time because there used to be one in my town but it closed down years back. I noticed that there was a section with animals to be adopted. (Petsmart also has one, but they only have cats...At least usually.) There were two rabbits, some hamsters/mice (I didn't pay that much attention, I'll just call them rodents) and I think probably a cat or two. I was watching a particularly energetic rodent (I'm guessing it's a dwarf hamster?) named Boggle. He was behaving rather curiously. Sometimes he would get onto his wheel and start running, then he'd get off, and get back on and change direction, and sometimes he would run like crazy, but other times he looked kind of bored. Very interesting. I read on his description that he likes to take food, piece by piece, to his plastic castle, and stash it there for later.

Labels: adoption, behavior, boggle, chinese, cruise ship, dwarf, europe, family, friends, gamecube, hamster, hat, honorifics, interesting, martin luther king, name, petco, relatives, shopping, vacation

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