The Roommate Story

I need to thank Dreams.and.Bones. and Zen for giving me the Sunshine Award! I have been thinking of who I want to give my five awards to, and I am having a lot of trouble, because I think each and every one of you deserve it! I was reading another blogger's post yesterday (sorry, don't remember who it was!) and they decided to use their artistic license and not award the five because they couldn't choose either, so I decided I was going to follow suit. That was until I read Paige's last post. She has decided to shut down her blog because one of her loved ones found the blog and was incredibly hurt by what she was doing to herself, and she just feels she can't continue to hurt the ones she loves this way. Therefore, I have decided to give all five of my Sunshine Awards to our beautiful dancer Paige :) May your life take you to wonderful places, may you meet wonderful people, and may you do wonderful things. Paige, if you get a chance to read this, know that whatever path life takes you on, we have all been touched by you, and you will remain in our hearts. I wish you all the best at school next year, and I know you are going to be one of the best dancers that MTSU has ever had :) Never stop striving towards greatness.

Anyway, on to the roommate drama! In our third year of vet school, usually around October and November, we do our first spays on cats from the local humane society. A lot of people keep the cat they spayed, because it is a sentimental thing, having the first animal you ever performed surgery on. Or, it is for us, anyway. Some people may think that is incredibly weird and gross, but I don't know. LOL In our lease, it says that we are allowed to have one cat and two small animals in cages, but not rabbits. I have one cat, K has a cat and two birds, and T has a ferret. Now, I know I call where I live an "apartment", but it's actually a condo, and T's parents bought it so she would be able to live rent-free for her four years at school, and K and I pay rent to her parents, which covers the condo association fees every month. So T's parents were the ones who made up the terms of the lease. K really, really, really wants to keep her spay cat, and asked me if I wanted to keep mine too, because if I did, we would need to bring it up with T to ask her parents.

As much as I love my cat and think he is the greatest thing in the world, I am not in the market for another cat right now. I have always been more of a dog person, and got my cat right before I came to vet school because we aren't allowed to have dogs per condo association rules, and I knew I would go crazy without a pet. Cats are also easy, and much more independent than dogs, so I felt fine in leaving my cat alone for hours at a time while in classes. I also want to sleep at night, and I know that having two cats in one bedroom at night can get noisy, especially if they are playing or fighting, etc. I also think that four cats in our small apartment is a lot of cats, and would be a lot of hair. So I told K that I am not looking to keep my spay cat, so she could bring it up to T whenever she wanted.

Last night, she decided to talk with T about it while we were watching America's Next Top Model, and things did not go well! K grew up in a small apartment in NYC with a lot of animals (read: lots of hair!), whereas T and I grew up in large houses in rural areas where the dogs and cats can go outside during the day, and there is lots of room for numerous animals. When K asked T if she could keep her spay cat, T's first reaction was "Whoa, that's a lot of cats in this little apartment." I totally understood, since T and I have the same-ish upbringing, but K didn't think it was a lot of cats at all, because she has four cats and two dogs, plus birds and various other small mammals, at her home in NYC. K got offended. K is also extremely opinionated, and doesn't really listen to other people's opinions, so it's hard to get her to listen to where you are coming from. T is also not a cat person at all, and two cats for her was an adjustment, which I also understand, but again, K didn't. T was trying to say that she felt like this was being pushed on her by K, and that having one more cat would just make her feel not at home in her own house and stressed out over the amount of animals and hair, etc. But again, K totally did not understand. There was a lot of crying involved and words like "ridiculous" and "offended", and rehashing of old arguments that came up. It all culminated in K asking T to rethink the decision (because T had originally said no), with the caveat being that if the answer is no, she will consider moving out because keeping her spay cat is that important to her.

I just sat on the couch and watched like I was at a tennis match. It was all very dramatic, and I still think the answer from T will be no. We will see if K decides to move out or not if the answer is no. I do like her, even with all of her idiosyncrasies and annoying habits, but she really needs to look at things from T's point of view. She isn't even considering T's side here, but I don't think she even wants to. I think she is being kind of childish, but that is just my opinion. I will let you all know what goes down once T gives her final answer!

In other news, I am still 121.5lbs. Grrrrrr. In the past three days, we have had lectures at school that included sub sandwiches, bagels, burritos, and tonight pizza. Will it ever end?? I am dying here. I feel anxious pretty much all the time because of it. I am dreading having to eat this evening, but once tonight is over, we shouldn't have any more lunch or dinner lectures for a while, so that's good at least!

Love you, Skinnies!

~Sottile