I'm fed up and about to make our house catfree. LONG RANT
I just want to say I told this story on another cat reddit asking for help/advice and all I got was some cat lovers telling me how wrong I was that I'm at my wits end and how I should "NEVER" put it outdoors, and how I'm the bad guy for hating the cat. I just deleted the post. So this subreddit seems like a good place to vent.
For some backstory, I was the stupid fucking causation of this rageful series of events you're about to read. I'm engaged to my wonderful Fiancee and we've lived together for the past 3 years. We BOTH work from home (This matters later) Stupidly on a night of drinking at the bar about a year and a half ago, her friend texts her saying how she found a kitten in an alley. I drunkenly thought it would be a FANTASTIC idea to get this cat, which my Fiancee was thrilled about as I've been pretty against having a cat up till that point. I changed my mind afterwards and said if we get one it'd need to be picked by us and from a shelter instead.
I wished I had just never said shit, as I was dragged along next day to an animal shelter where they had a litter of kittens, my Fiancee settled on this tabico kitten at the shelter, I didn't want a skittish cat so I stomped my foot around them all to see if any of them jumped. That cat was the only one that didn't, which I thought was great. I have an in home workshop and use powertools and craft stuff by hand so a brave curious cat would be great yeah? WRONG.
First off, her shit smells so bad, it took lots of money and time to figure out what sort of litter would cover the absolute hellish odor coming from her turds. And it only half ass does. Fine whatever, she wasn't phased by any of my power tools or shop vaccums (YET) and everything was alright and she was generally well behaved as far as cats go.
UP until 4 months ago, when I was in the kitchen, I was cooking dinner as my Fiancee has longer hours and my time is more flexible so I do a lot of the chores, cooking, and cleaning. I had some steaks I was searing in a pan, so there was a loud hiss noise as you'd expect right? Well here comes the nightmare, I was quickly moving around the kitchen to get some butter out of the fridge (the fridge is right next to the hallway opening, the cat was sitting in the hallway opening where I had some small boards leaned next to the wall. Well, she didn't expect me to appear so quickly and jumped, which caused the boards to fall down and slam into the floor scaring her even more.
And she turned into a literal demon, howling, yowling, tucked ears, and anytime I moved she would move closer to me to attack me, so I threw the remote at the wall out of fear to scare her (Didn't work) which exploded and started yelling for my fiancee to come grab this fucking cat. I was absolutely pissed after that. I said some very choice words to my Fiancee about this cat and how I'm going to get rid of her yada yada. Putting a big strain on our relationship.
Since that day i've been walking on eggshells with the damn thing, it's become completely skittish, loud noises she hears startle her and she'll target me. I spent the next 4 months trying to repair a relationship wit the cat, being nice, giving her treats, pets, you name it. Since the incident 4 months ago, there have been a handful of smaller times she's hissed and growled at me to attack me but my Fiancee was right there to diffuse the situation.
Well a few days ago, I got out of bed while my fiancée was about to take a shower, I opened my bedroom door where the cat was apparently trying to look under the crack and had no idea I was coming. She absolutely freaked out, like the first incident. Yowling, tucked ears, hissing, growling, creeping towards me to attack I freaked out again and chucked a book down the hallway to get her to run but she only moved a few feet back and then started creeping towards me again so I slammed the door shut to hear her yowling at the door. I yelled for my fiancee to get the damn cat again and show her. Opening the door again anytime the cat would see me she'd tuck her ears back. My Fiancee grabbed the cat and put her in her office that has a lockable cat door and then went back to the shower. Fine whatever, it can't get out so I started walking down the hall. I turn around and the little shit is sticking it's head out looking at me so I walk over to lock it. I bend down to lock it and the cat starts attacking my hand while I'm trying to lock it so i literally punched the plastic cat door all the way off. Realizing that it's not lockable I ran away again to get my fiancee and we stuffed blankets and shit in the hole while it was growling in her office.
I flew off the handle pissed, telling my Fiancee that this is it, I'm done with this, it's either going outside or we're getting rid of it and I don't care how but that's my final straw. This has caused a massive strain on our relationship, she was broken down in tears crying about not wanting to get rid of her cat which I comforted her on but at the same time being firm about how scary this shit is to deal with for me. And I even mentioned, when we have kids, what if the thing attacks one of them because they yelled too loud or something falls over and she blames them?
After that event shit has been fine with the stupid thing again, it wants pets from me, doesn't care, but I can read the body language sometimes and I can tell i'm still walking on eggshells. I just ignore it as much as possible.
It keeps getting on the kitchen counters which I get mad at because I food prep there a lot, so I'm constantly having to disinfect or clean/pick shit up that she knocks off onto the floor.
As of today it literally pulled the strainer out of the kitchen sink which was filled with captured food bits, and pushed it off onto the kitchen floor which exploded in an absolute mess THAT I HAD TO CLEAN.
I'm genuinely over this, and that's solidifed it for me. I don't know what to do with the cat, is there a way to rehome the thing? Slowly introduce her to the outdoors? I'll be having a serious sit down conversation with my Fiancee tonight about options so any ideas other people who have went r/catfree would be great. It's going to be stressful for her as it's technically her cat.
Thanks for reading my long ass rant. This has been a shit show for me the last 4 months.