SOFA WARS: We Were Being Held To Ransom By Our Cat!

Cats - lovely pets, but with a dark side too.

A while back, for the last couple of years I'd been dissatisfied with our lounge sofa set. It matched our last house fine, but the Italian overstuffed look didn't now suit our current modern, contemporary home.

So why didn't I change it?

Because we were being held to ransom by our cat.

A handsome Birman, lovely in every way... except she regularly claws the furniture to the tune of about $1,000 in repairs every couple of years. Ouch.

So I expected we would be keeping our old sofa and getting it (expensively) fixed each year - until the demise of our kitty.

Except at 12, she still has a lot of good years ahead of her.

On the one hand I hope she will last. She's a lovely member of our household.

On the other hand - how were we going to get round the problem?

The reality: I was being bound by fear. Fear of spending a large sum of money and having the same problem happen with our new sofa.

Until one day I turned to my wife and declared, "We can't continue like this, we need to move on."

What changed?

I conquered my fear. I decided that the problem could be reduced by closing a few doors and restricting our cat's access. And hoping.

It's the same fear many people have of spending big on lottery tickets - and not getting anything back. That's why they spend $5 a game and wonder why they're not getting any winnings.

I heard a great quote this morning from an interview...

"Someone asked me what's the worst thing that would happen if I didn't make a change. And then he answered - nothing."

If you change nothing, nothing will happen. If you don't buy a larger number of tickets, your odds will stay low and you won't win the prize you want.