There's Something About Leo...

And it ain't pretty. Leo is our two year old cat whom we rescued from the animal shelter in Michigan. We loved him, cared for him, and have even paid his vet bills and provided him with many expensive meals, and he has yet to thank us. I know what everyone says about cats, "Oh they're so independent, isn't it nice!", or "Cats are soooooo easy to take care of, they practically take of themselves." I wish that were true. Leo is motivated by one thing only, food. All of his behavior stems from this one true passion. Here are a few ways husband and I have altered our lives/adapted to Leo so far:
1. Safety locks on all of our lower kitchen cabinets, and one up high that contains all of our bread/chip type items. We are so far ahead of the game when we have kids.
2. Listening to constant whining (I call his incessant meows whining) for a minimum of thirty minutes prior to every feeding. Many of you may be wondering why Leo has to call attention to the fact he needs food. Well, Leo isn't capable of making good food choices, i.e. he eats everything in site, so to keep him from being obese, he gets feed twice a day, once at 6am the other at 10pm. Don't worry, he isn't actually starving, he weighs a healthy 15 pounds.
3. Large paint cans that I have to lift off of the tubs we keep dog and cat food in.
4. For those faint of heart, don't read this. Due to the situation outlined above, Leo wears a shocker collar at night. Trust me, I thought long and hard about this, I too felt tremendously bad for him. But after a year of getting woken up at 4:30am to scratching at the door, tugging of the door, and yes, even body slamming the door, I decided that getting enough sleep to deal with him far outweighed the guilt I had about the collar.
5. Allowing the cats on the kitchen table and counters. Leo is the first animal that I have ever dealt with that absolutely doesn't care about cause and effect. No punishment (besides animal abuse, and even, who really knows) deters him from doing bad things. I had to make a choice between my own mental well being and having to wash to table/counters every time I wanted to use them, or pulling my hair out of frustration. Fortunately for me I chose mental health and now the cats have the run of house.
6. Being one of those pet owners who spends lots of money on expensive food. Through no fault of my own, and this totally being husbands fault, we have two cats that are both on prescription food, for the rest of their natural, 14 years left, lives. I find it hard not to put a price on love, but I do it every day.
7. Vacationing. Hopefully one day we'll find someone generous enough to want to handle the special needs of all our animals, most notably Leo.
I'm sure there is more I'm missing, and if I remember I'll let you know. But I think I've left you enough to chew on at the moment.