Life with a cat is never dull when he or she is not sleeping, which is 95% of the time. But the minute the monster within awakens your home is never the same.
It was sunny in Seattle this morning, a rare occurrence in middle of February. The sun came out and showed every piece of cat litter across my living room, dining room and unfortunately my kitchen counter. How does that litter manage to get everywhere. I understand the pine needles that come in from all the trees. I understand dust and even understand a light dusting of cat fur throughout the house. But I do not understand the dispersement of cat litter throughout the floor and up the stairs.
Every morning I diligently clean the cat’s litter box and every day, there it is, all across the floors, on the chairs and glaring at me! I vacuum every day trying to win the battle, but the cat litter wins. We even have a special cat door to an outside yet enclosed litter box with a catch pad as he steps out of his custom-made litter “house”.
As I watch him preen himself on the back on one of my living room chairs I can just see the collection of cat fur collecting. One of the funniest times, was when we had an ottoman the same color as our cat right in front of the fireplace, the favorite napping spots for most cats. My brother was visiting and sat on the ottoman in corduroy pants standing up with a total fur coat attached to his derriere. I laughed so hard I almost cried.
Our cat is called Frostyman the Cat, but is kindly known as Asshole cat. Whatever you do, do not disturb his napping place. You WILL be attacked! The eyes get big, the ears go back and the hiss is heard. Do pay attention, because if you walk away, he will attack your legs. This is a lot worse in the summer with bare legs.
If you do not feed him right on time he will constantly remind you, that no matter what your are doing, his needs are far more important. But this is the only time he is quite loving. Purr, rub, snuggle and FEED me!
So why do we have a cat. Occasionally they honor you by sitting on your lap, but only if you are reading a book or a magazine or if you have you Ipad or Kindle in your hands. And please move whatever is in his way, because he is making you “happy” by placing his twelve or more pounds in your lap and please don’t ever get up, as it is the same reaction as if you might need to actually use that chair in front of your laptop.
As I wrote once before it is imperative not to leave your half finished glass of water anywhere, as what you might not realize is that glass is not really yours. It is an upscale cat watering dish shared when you are not looking. I keep thinking I should just leave a nice glass of scotch out to share with Frostyman and see how much he drinks. Just a thought.
If you have a solution for cat litter, cat behavior or lack of…. I would love to know what it is! In the mean time, it must be meal time, as he is rubbing my pajama leg and purring quite loudly.