Life with Kitty
It’s been a really long time since I’ve posted anything and I wasn’t entirely sure I would again but then decided to try again and see it went any better this time. OK, so it’s not entirely the case that I have things to conribute that the world simply can’t live without but what I do have is a cat and what is the internet for if not cute cat pics and videos. So I felt it was my personal duty to contribute to the online catty community. Oh yes, some food posts will also be turning up in due course.
Roughly two years ago I adopted a rescue cat. A gorgeous little creature made of fluff, purrs and bizarre habits. So before proceeding any further, here is a picture as I’m sure you’re dying to see one. (OK, in reality I’m dying to share it with you, but no need to argue about semantics.)
Technically speaking the cat has a name but
a) my choice of name for her changes roughly every six months
b) I almost never call her by her name so she has no hope of knowing what it is
c) she pretty much disregards whatever I call her and decides when to pay attention to me on her own terms.
Generally I call her Fluffs and I guess I do it often enough that sometimes she even looks at me when I say it. Could just be coincidence or whatever but from here on she will be referred to as Fluffs or Kitty.
I had no experience of cats when I got her so I was in for shock. Turns out cats wake you up all night. Every night. Maybe some don’t but this one did so the first year of living with her I was tired and grumpy, eating and craving loads of rubbish and putting on weight. Totally blamed it on Kitty but she was so bloody cute and vulnerable and who knew what sort of life she’d had before so I didn’t have the heart to shut her out of the bedroom. Not that she slept there, she just came round every hour to meow in a really pathetic way, got a pet on the head and would then leave till next time.
Kitty has a cat flap that I don’t lock and is free to come and go at any hour as she pleases. She generally pleases to do so between 4 and 6am, sometimes just letting the cat flap slam loudly behind her and sometimes charging through it like a lunatic, making an incredible racket, only to return home a few minutes or even seconds later. And then do it again! Why? What is the sense in that? WHY KITTY? I generally wake up thinking that an earthquake is happening.
Naturally what I did when I first got her home was google everything I could about dealing with cats. What I discovered is that there is a real lack of actual information just loads of pseudo-scientific rubbish and lots of people seeking advice on how to deal with their own cat problems. So with the internet offering little help, I was forced to deal with Kitty’s actual personal quirks (which by the way still make very little sense).
What I did manage to learn from the internet was pretty basic:
Cats like routine and predictability. They also apparently love cuddly cat beds, cat toys, food, treats, cozy warm places, cuddling up with their human, more food and sleeping.
So thats a NO on all fronts except the sleeping. Kitty does like to sleep.
On all other counts she does not behave like a typical cat.
- She sleeps in the coldest, most uncomfortable places much of the time
- She seems to want food but barely eats
- She wants to play but only with the string I’ve attached to a stick
- Catnip has no effect
- She avoids cat beds like the plague
- She’s not very interested in treats
- She will sit in the same room with me but sharing a sofa (even at opposite ends) was initially completely unacceptable to her
- She would only get in my bed if I wasn’t in it.
- As for cuddling – I don’t think she had much experience of that. I could pet her head but after a short while she would generally take a swipe at me.
Pretty much none of this was what I had in mind when I decided to get a cat. The total shocker was that my cat had a personality, and a pretty forceful one at that. I did not stand a chance so I had adapt and to learn to get on by observing and interacting with her. And not by reading random crap on the internet! Who knew?
But what Kitty has always done is purr. A lot. She purrs when you stroke her head, when you talk to her, when you show any kind of friendliness toward her. And Kitty loves a brush. She purrs madly even at the sight of a brush and my discovery of this in the early days turned out to be the way to make friends.
But we’ve come a long way and I’ve learned that the only predictable thing Kitty does is to change her habits and routine roughly every one to two weeks. Although she does come running at the sight of a brush. Every single time.