Cats and Flowers

The other part of the plan is to find a new Maine Coon cat as soon as I can bear to. I don't want Hecate to get any ideas about being the only cat, which I know she'd prefer. The thing is, I need to have a big, cuddly Coon. I'd like to adopt a retired breeder, or a Coon mix from the shelter. If I'm lucky I can do both. I can't think of anything nicer than a house full of Maine Coons.

(I'm sure those of you with allergies are recoiling in horror at the thought of such a thing. I have allergies, too, but the wonder of that breed keeps me on antihistamines when I need them.)

I'm really skeptical about people who say they're allergic to cats. If that's shorthand for "I don't like cats," you should say that you don't like cats. I don't know anybody who's more allergic than I am: when I haven't been around them for a long time, being near a cat causes me to have fever and other flu-like symptoms. However, when I am around cats, after a few weeks I don't have trouble. The human body is very practical the way it can adjust to some circumstances, even if it is happier in others.

The reason that seasonal pollens give us such trouble is that they go away. Dust is an irritant, and just about everybody is "allergic" to it even if some people react more strongly.

Food sensitivities are a totally different animal, and I don't pretend to know anything about them. What I do know is that my extremely spendy ENT tried to lure me into the "Allergy Lab," and I thought about how my insurance wasn't going to cover it at 100%, and how I didn't really believe in allergies, and how they'd probably just tell me I'm allergic to cats and a lot of flowers. This much I've known since I was 8.

I also know that love is stronger than allergies. I love flowers, and I love cats. Enough said.

before - after