Life with a cat

I have had a cat now for just over a month. So I have had time to get used to it! And so has she. So how are things panning out?

We have some sort of routine now. In the morning my alarm goes off, and I put on some clothes and release the cat from the old side of the house. She will run in meowing urgently. I will try to pet her a bit, but she will be impatient. Then I go to the loo and she follows me. Then I get my laser pointer and send her through the house like a crazy cat. She really hasn't tired of that at all! And she now insists on spending a fair while upside down with her claws into my bed. It seems to be the bee's knees.

Early morning chasing of the red dot

I then open the catflap for her, and do my morning routine while she continues to dart through the house like a headless chicken. And when I'm done we go down for breakfast. She tends to wait for me, regardless of whether there still is food in her bowl.

She tends to sit on the table when I have breakfast, and when I am done she can lick out the bowl. Then I go and brush my teeth. She tends to be meowing around the bathroom then.

Breakfast

When I go to the office she fluctuates between being asleep somewhere downstairs, and walking into the office, meowing mournfully. Petting her doesn't really help. Going downstairs doesn't either. Sometimes she will try to jump into my cupboard, which I am not keen on, as that's where the printer lives and I can imagine she could destroy that. Furthermore, from the cupboard she can get onto the shelf above it, and I know how precariously that is fixed. I don't want a youthful and reckless cat stomping around all over it! It might come out of the wall. So if she is too insistent I have to remove her from the office and close the door. And then she will do her mournful meowing again.

Work (she actually doesn't do this all too often)

If I come downstairs during the day and she is lying somewhere but awake, then to go and scratch her head for a bit. She really loves that.

If I am in the kitchen for a while as I am cooking, eating, and/or doing the dishes, she tends to regularly walk in meowing mournfully (yes, there is a pattern there). But when I go to the living room to read a bit she tends to ignore me and hang out elsewhere. She will regularly be in the bedroom then. She might be asleep on the bed or under the breakfast bar. Sometimes she has the zoomies instead, and thunders through house like a daftie again. I also will do at least one more laser pointer session with her during the day.

Getting ready to take a shower

In the evening also clean out her litter box. That can be a bit frustrating; she likes to follow me around, and she also does that then. And then I seem to give her an idea, so it is not unusual for me to just have cleaned the the box, and she deciding it is a good time for a wee, or even a poo. But it seems she is a bit nervous relieving herself in front of my nose, as it seems to happen more often than normal that she forgets to sit down properly, and will wee horizontally out of the box, creating a big mess. And then she will try to cover that. Scratching the wall she just peed against isn't really doing the job, though. I am thinking of buying a litter box with walls and a ceiling. Then it will be harder for her to pee all over the house.

Somewhere between 21:30 and 22:00 I close the catflap. I don't want her to have access to my bedroom at night! And I sometimes wonder if she hangs out in the bedroom at night because she wants to stop me from locking her out of it during the night, but she is always so easily inspired just to run out of it, back into "her" side of the house, which allows me to close the door behind her and go to bed.

Going to the loo

I've had some trouble figuring out what it is she wants, as she does a lot of mournful meowing at me, but then doesn't seem to want petting or food. And I can't spend my working day letting her chase the laser pointer. But I think she sometimes just wants to be near. And I think we both get our cuddle fix from the head scratching sessions during the day. So I think we have a sort of balance by now! And I think it's a good one. She makes me laugh a lot. And cuddling her is really nice. She is quite a presence in my house!

Planning a walk or bike ride