Well, now.

For a while now, my little sister's been trying to railroad me into buying a cat for my apartment. I suspect that the sole reason she's doing this is because she wants a cat to play with, but can't keep one herself due to housemate issue. So far, I have nobly, if feebly, resisted her attempts to make me bring a feline into my life that I do not have time to look after, but... well, yesterday she took me to the pet store to look at the SPCA cats there that were up for adoptions. And there were a couple there that were so incredibly cute... and so easy to imagine stalking about my apartment and keeping me company on weekends...

But I really should resist. Why? Let me list reasons:

• I'm currently trying to make an effort to increase the breadth and depth of my social network, which means I'm trying to spend a lot of time away from home. That would not be fair to a cat, who I would probably not see much of.


• I like the freedom of just being able to pack up and go traveling whenever the mood strikes me (and I have enough spare vacation time). A cat would prevent me from being able to do that, and might actually prevent me from traveling at all during the summer, when my potential cat-sitter little sister is away.


• I really don't like the smell of cats, and my apartment, for all it's virtues, has pretty bad ventilation. I don't want to live in an apartment I don't like the smell of.


• I have a hard enough time keeping my apartment clean and tidy without a cat shedding hairs anywhere and everywhere.


• Emptying a litter box, while not quite so gross as, say, cleaning a rodent's cage, is still a pretty unpleasant chore.


• I'm more of a dog person anyways.

Sounds pretty convincing to me.