Illustrations show that sharing your life with a feline is one of our world’s happiest heartbreaks.

In small doses, just about everyone thinks spending time with a pet is fun. But those who’ve cohabited with an animal companion will tell you that it’s not all smiles and playtime.

Taking care of a pet involves a lot of responsibilities and compromises, and that goes double if you’re the owner of a cat, who’s likely to think that the home you paid for, as well as all the things you bought to put inside it are at least as much its property as yours.

Manga artist and Twitter user Koyo Watanabe (@akuta0716) has put together an illustrated list of the unpleasant parts of cat ownership, but this gripe session ends up taking a sharp turn before reaching its final destination (translations below).

▼ “I’ve drawn a four page manga showing how difficult having a cat is.”

https://twitter.com/akuta0716/status/950678017495347200

▼ Your cat will [left to right]:
Leap onto you, including onto your face.
Use all of its power to pester you into playing with it, and then use even more power as you play together.
Get in your way, no matter what you’re trying to do.

▼ Become clingy only when you’ve got something else you need to get done.
Always give you a look that says “What? It just fell over by itself” as it knocks your things down.
Get in your way in the most forceful way possible.

▼ Insist on sleeping in your bed…then taking over all the blankets.
Have no interest in behaving like a solid object.
Snatch your food off the table.

▼ Have no interest in your foolish human desires or concerns.
Will wait until the moment you don’t have your smartphone or camera handy to do something adorable.
Turn your “just a couple minutes” break into a couple hours.

But as Watanabe shows, there’s something more painful than these minor aggravations waiting for cat owners who’re in it for the long haul.

▼ Doctor: “There’s a tumor next to your cat’s heart…And there’s a possibility that it will continue to grow…”

Your cat will hide that it’s sick, as much as it can. The bills for veterinary examinations and medicine will be expensive. The time you used to spend playing with your cat will change into time you spend taking care of its health issues.

▼ When your cat passes away, it won’t have any way of telling you whether it was happy to have lived with you or not.

▼ Former cat owner: “Oh, wow, lemme see this cutey pie right here!”
Rescue cat shelter volunteer : “Uhhh…”

And yet, your cat will still have put a spell on you, and make you want to have another cat someday.

Considering how many cat lovers have had multiple feline pets, there definitely seems to be some truth to Watanabe’s assertation that once you’ve fallen in love with one kitty, the cycle is likely to repeat itself again and again. Just remember that, as alluded to in the illustrations, your pet can’t tell you when it’s feeling sick, so make sure your furry friend gets regular checkups at the vet.

Source, images: Twitter/@ akuta0716
[ Read in Japanese ]