On the first day of work, I’m just fooling around, slacking off a bit, and wishing everyone a happy New Year.
I really want to answer this question.
Let me briefly introduce myself first. Just as my personal signature says, I’m an old, greasy, overweight otaku, a 90s “lonely old person”.
After breaking up with my girlfriend in 2017, I’ve been single until now. At that time, I was really disheartened about love. My family didn’t understand and kept urging me to get married and have grandchildren, which made me even more rebellious. I declared that I would stay single for the rest of my life and would never get married.
During that single period, I was mostly taciturn. Besides going to work, I stayed alone in my rented room. Sometimes I could go a whole day without saying a word, just playing games, watching TV shows, and chatting with a bunch of netizens in QQ groups. I was full of wit and humor online, but in reality, I couldn’t even find someone to talk to.
I was definitely lonely.
So I thought, should I get a pet for company?
Perhaps it was really fate. In May 2018, after watching Avengers: Infinity War alone at the cinema, I dropped by Walmart to buy some things. On the way back, I met a little stray cat, probably less than two months old (as the doctor said when I took it to the hospital for a check – up). I made the decision almost in a second: to take it home.
I immediately took it to the nearest pet hospital for a check – up, cleaning, vaccination, and deworming to ensure its good health. Then I started buying cat food, a litter box, cat litter, cat toys, changing the water twice a day, and cleaning the litter box on time every day. I was constantly worried about it. Several times, even during my lunch break, I took a taxi home specially to check how it was doing at home. When it scratched itself with its paws occasionally, I worried: Does it have fleas? When I noticed that it ate less cat food sometimes, I also worried: Is this brand of cat food not to its taste? Should I try another one?
Once, I even complained in the group that since I got a cat, I’ve experienced the feeling of being a father. This made some of my friends in the group who were parents scoff. One doting father of a daughter was even a bit angry, thinking that I shouldn’t compare an animal to a child.
One night, Blueberry (the name given to it by friends in the group) squatted on the windowsill, meowing softly, “meow~”. I realized that it was lonely too and needed a playmate.
Then I started paying attention to pet stores, planning to buy one. A British Shorthair cat at a friend’s house was really cute and made me a little tempted.
Not long after, one evening after work, I met another little stray cat, pure white. I started to hesitate. Should I take it home, or should I follow my plan to buy a British Shorthair or a blue cat (the doctor at the pet hospital’s blue cat had kittens, and he said he could sell me one at a low price and even include the vaccination, but I had to wait for over a month until it was a bit older)? While I was hesitating, it disappeared. I could only comfort myself. That night, when I talked to my friend about this, I said that if I met it again tomorrow, it would be fate, and I would take it back.
And then I brought it back. The day I brought it back was July 30, 2018.
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