About five and a half years ago, Chéri and I were visiting a persian cat breeder, to pick our new fur baby.

The litter was just a couple of weeks old at the time, and we were there only to choose which of the four kittens we would adopt. The breeder lady welcomed us into her home, and took us to her office. She left for a couple of minutes, and came back with a small card board box, filled with the four white furry puffs.

I sat on the floor, in the middle of the room and watched how they interacted with each other for a while. Three of them played around, and the fourth couldn’t care less about what her sibblings were doing. I picked them up, one by one, wondering how I would ever be able to choose as they were all equally adorable… When I reached out to take the last one (the I-don’t-give-a-dang kitten), she didn’t hiss but she gave me an Oh-no-Don’t even-think-about-it look, and I remember telling the breeder ”Well this little one has some attitude!”

And for some reason, that’s the one I decided to choose.

So yes, even from day one, Freja has had a questionable temper.

Weeks later, we did the trip out of town again, to bring baby Freja back home.

I was used to cats being independant, but not that much. I could tell that she liked Chéri and I, but she was clearly against having anyone or any other animal around. She mastered the art of hissing and showing claws at a very young age. You’d think that a six pound cat can’t be that dangerous, but I’d beg to differ.

A couple of years back, I took an appointment with our vet for Freja’s vaccine. Our vet knew about Freja’s bad temper, so she had prescribed us some relaxing medication to give our little Tazmanian devil before she’d come home, to make things more… manageable. I took care of giving her the drug, which seemed to have numbed Freja enough not to kill anybody. 

The hissing started when the doc listened to her heart and lungs with her stethoscope. Ears checking wasn’t easy, and Freja made it clear that noone would stick a thermometer… there.

But the worst part was when the time came to give her the vaccine.

When I took Freja in my arms, her pupils widened. She was really angry. I’m-going-to-scratch-your-face-off angry, and I wasn’t the only one to notice. I heard the vet telling her assistant to get the leather gloves.

Whuuut?

Have you ever been to a prey bird show? You know these very thick leather gloves people wear to prevent eagles and other large birds from hurting their arms? Well, our vet had to wear those to hold my little furball, while her assistant would stick a needle in her to prevent some random feline disease. To be quite honest, by that time, I was scared more for the disease (and for the vet and her lovely assistant) than for Freja. I was told to leave the bathroom, so that Freja wouldn’t hold a grudge against me for what was about to happen.

The following minutes felt like they were shooting a scene from The Exorcist in my bathroom. 

That vet really earns her money, let me tell you that.

And that’s just an example of what Freja can do. As I mentionned a couple of times in the past, I (almost) seriously considered making her the new Grumpy Cat, but she gave me warnings that I wouldn’t be safe at night if I tried to make money out of her. I think she doesn’t understand that she would greatly benefit from it.

I do make fun of Freja’s grumpy look, but I have to say… I think the pandemic broke her. After more than a year stuck with both Chéri and I 24/7, she has changed quite a bit.

She cuddles more than I ever would have dreamt of. She lets me rub her belly without trying to slash my wrists open (BIG improvement). And (I think) I heard her purr once.

What’s not to love about her, right?

Oh… And she would be really grumpy if she knew I took the above picture because though it looks like her grumpy self is yelling at me, she was actually just waiting for treats, and happened to yawn while I was holding the phone in her direction.

But hey! Once grumpy, always grumpy, right??   

 

 

This year, I am dedicating my A to Z Challenge to revisiting 26 of my favorite Instagram pictures, and the memories that cling to them. If you’d like to get the full list of my challenge post, just click here.