Letters to the Editor
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A letter from the Roommate
Dear Cary, I share with a woman who has OCD. I'm pretty cool with this and we generally get on well. She has two cats and as I love cats, I play with them a lot. The roommate told me a while ago not to bounce them because it hurts their brains! This is nonsense - there's a huge difference between roughly shaking a cat (or a baby, and I know this because I have been a child care practitioner) and normal bouncing which just about everyone does in some form with their baby. In fact, there is no way a cat would put up with rough shaking. It would claw, bite, hiss, and wriggle so violently you couldn't stop it getting away. These cats come up to me, and we play constantly. It's not like I'm restraining one to play with it while the other runs away then I have to hunt down the other one - they like me and show it with their behaviour. So I told her that it was ridiculous, which it just plain is. I think she may be jealous of how much her cats like me.
Well, the other day my roommate told me that she couldn't get the idea out of her mind that I'm causing them brain damage and that I'm not allowed to bounce them and that I had to respect her wishes even if they weren't reasonable, and if I didn't believe her, to read this letter from Cary Tennis about it. I am highly insulted that she implies I would dream of damaging her cats, and offended that she is trying to control my actions. I feel that I put up with a lot and not just her OCD - cats also shed hair, have smelly cat boxes and yowl for attention when you don't necessarily want to give it. I understand that she has OCD, but don't I have rights too? Please advise how I should handle this. I don't feel comfortable around her cats anymore, even though they keep coming up for a cuddle and play.