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Jake's cat appears in Eureka street in chapter one
for the first time. Jake describes him as "the fat one with no
testicles" (p.13,l.22) and states that he doesn't
particular like his cat and that it is "a bit of a wanker"(p.13,l.24). His attitude towards the cat is
shown through the whole story and Jake actually only seems to need
the cat to have at least some companionship and to have someone to
let out his anger. The cat (Jake didn't even give him
a name) almost appears in each chapter and annoys Jake, either by
his miaowing (Jake "piled his dish high to shut him up but he
could miaow while he ate there days" p.60,ll.23-24) or by his
repelling attitude towards Jake. Always when Jake is in a good mood
and tries to be nice and wants to pet his cat, it just shoots out
past him or Jake has to force him to sit on his knee. Jake even
implies that the cat somehow feels superior to him and crooks his
eyebrow. So both of them don't really seem to like
each other and there is just a relationship of needs between them.
Jake doesn't want to be totally alone and the cat wants food. At
the beginning of chapter nine, when Jake is in a bad mood again, he
tries to pee on his cat and when Aoirghe has told him to fuck
himself (p.207) his reaction is to kick his cat. Later Jake feels
guilty and pours the cat some guilt-milk. But
in the end Jake still doesn't like his cat. When he goes for a walk
(with the cat) he heads back home and leaves the cat hoping that it
might get lost. He calls him fucker and sometimes even wishes that
the cat had his testicles back so that he could cut them off again. Excpecially
on the last page it is shown that Jake really doesn't want that cat
since, after having changed his attitude, because of being in love
with Aoirghe and being happy, he enjoys to see his cat fail and
thinks of getting a new one. Now Jake doesn't need to
put up with a cat that doesn't like him, because he feels
self-confident since Aoirghe is with him and the abandonment of the
cat is kind of a symbol for the change in himself.
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