Cat Lover/Pet Lover Extraordinaire: At Your Service

Needless to say, this past few weeks has been very trying indeed. To help with the bills and to help with their financial situation as the summer months approach, we have taken on two new roommates. They are a couple, great people, with a great cat named KiKi. KiKi is the sweetest cat of somebody else’s that I have come across in a long time. She is a black and white DSH, with the cutest face ever. She has a lot of the personality traits that I like in a feline of my own, including her docile nature and the fact that she loves to be around people. The computer table (not the keyboard!) is one of her favorite places to be.

While I have thoroughly enjoyed this new feline addition to our home, I must say that it has been a trying experience to get her and my cat to enjoy one another. As a matter of fact, things were completely to the contrary with these two from the first moment KiKi’s carrier entered my home! She spent a few hours in there, a few hours around the house hissing at every ankle and table leg. Then, it was time to go out on the patio. If you are just now tuning in, that is where my cat prefers to spend all her time.

It has been a week now. They are outside sharing a litterbox and two sides to the same bowl! This time last week I was just sure that they were going to kill one another. I was even afraid to leave them alone, and although I think I know better KiKi has about two pounds on my cat and that could be the real deal breaker if they were to rumble.

So, how did I do it you ask? I just did. There were no special tricks. I figured that cats are a lot like people and have to get used to new people and new places when they come across them. Why can’t the same be said for cats? The next time you have to introduce two cats to each other, take my advice: just let them hate one another, as long as they are not beating the mess out of one another. They will eventually get over it, especially if there is only one litter box and one food bowl. Such scarcity could make felines fast forget their differences!

Today, I realized that a nagging pet may be just the birth control young girls need these days. You think a pet is bugging you, imagine what a whiny kid could do to a raw set of nerves. I think we should work on that, implementing it in schools and what-not. Well, maybe not.

You see…

I have a headache.

A bad headache. One of those headaches so bad that you just want the world to go away. It came on slowly, but it’s here now and nothing is seeming to cure it. There is not enough dark rooms or self-medication in the world to get me through this one.

Instead, I decide to take a nap. I’m a light sleeper, and a grumpy one at that.

You know what I hear? The soothing whirr-whirr of the washing machine…..

….and the ‘meowwwwwwww’ of the d*** cat doing her best to get on my nerves.

LEAVE ME BE!

Why don’t cats speak English?

Is this what I get for being bad to my mother when I was younger? Probably so. That’s too bad. Sorry Mom.

So, you know what I am going to do? I am going to nurse my headache and appease the cat. It’s the only chance I stand in this fight. Apparently her highness doesn’t like the new cat food I bought and wants what I am eating.

It’s a no-go; I need to coat my stomach for the mega-dose of aceteminophen I am about to take. Sorry, kitty cat.

This is what makes me know I am not ready for kids. I am ready to strangle the cat. A kid with a raw ‘tude may be in real physical danger, so I think I will pass on the little ones–at least for the next new years.

How’s that for birth control?

My mom brought up something very interesting.

I told her I was at a loss for words as to what to say today. My cat just p**ed me off and I didn’t want to talk about her. That’s a whole other story in itself.

She said, “talk about where cats sleep.”

So here I am. Thanks, Mom =]

How sad. She is my biggest (only) fan.

This brought up a good point. I bought a really nice wicker planter stand at a yard sale down the street from my house and brought it home. I had all these ideas for it. Moved it all around the house. It was one of my first pieces of furniture or anything since I had moved cross-country so I was proud of it. What a find!

And what of this infamous wicker planter?

It’s a cat bed. Yeah, I know. I didn’t intend for it to be. I moved to a new house and it found a permanent home in the space behind my bar. Didn’t have a plant yet so it just collected mail. One day I woke up to a curled up kitty sleeping where the pot should go. She kept this up. I put her out a few times, but she kept going back. As of now, I have a balled up bed sheet in the bottom and have accepted the fact that my plant stand will always be a cat bed. Le Sigh.

So, here is my word to the wise: don’t go broke on a cat bed. You will be so sorry that you did, especially since your cat knows nothing about value or money and will do everything in its power to sleep any and everywhere except the bed that you broke the bank for. It’s one of those things that most cat owners are just going to have to accept.

Right now I am feeling pretty guilty. I am going out of town for the rest of the day, and my beloved little ones will be left to fend for themselves for several hours–likely into the evening. What an insane little thing to worry about, I know–at least that would be the sentiments of those who were not fortunate or blessed enough to have fur-children in the home. It’s not that I have to worry about them burning themselves on the stove, drowning in the tub, or anything that would worry me were it kids that I was dealing with.

Short post today, because like I said I AM going out of town. But I feel guilty. Leaving them here all by themselves. No companionship. No me. I care way more than they do, but I know plenty of people who hire sitters. Unfortunately I am not so monetarily capable, so I must leave them alone. It’s easier now, but I must say I always wonder what type of chaos or mayhem I will come home to once they just get fed up of being left alone…

What do you guys do when you have to leave for extended periods of time? I work at home so my pets are hardly ever left alone for too long. I know people who hire a sitter. I myself rely more on pet porters and baby gates (mainly for the dogs). What do you do?

I have to say that one of the main issues I have with having a cat is the smell. Not that that is something I have to deal with; I am an experienced enough cat owner to know how to keep the smell from ever occurring.

Once it starts, it is hard to get rid of, so I prefer to avoid traveling that route at all. Then again, I have only one cat right now. What about the people who provide loving homes to numerous felines at once. How do they combat the ever-offensive cat smell?

One way is to let your cat roam free. There are pros and cons to this idea. The pros are obviously that you can have cats as pets without having them all in your home, but then again there may come that day where they don’t ever come home. As the owner of an outside cat, that is a risk that many people take.

I have a cat that refuses to leave the lanai. She thinks she is an outside cat; for all she knows, she IS outside. That is okay with me. She slips in the door when she has to use her litterbox but in most cases, she spends all of her time outdoors. Of course, this completely eliminates the possibility of having any offensive odor at all. Most people that come over don’t even know I have a cat!!

Personally, I like to know where my little one is going to be and letting her roam free is too much worry for me. There are too many changes that have to be made for me to feel comfortable letting my favorite feline become an outdoor cat, and since she isn’t even displaying the slightest inclination to be any more outdoors than she already is, I don’t even address that issue.

Some people tell me that it is her natural instinct to want to be outdoors. I say she is domesticated and her natural instinct is to be inside and use a litter box. I could be wrong.

There are numerous reasons to decide to let your cat roam about. Personally, it is not for me and I don’t think it’s for my cat either. We prefer to know where the other is at all times.

What about you? Do you let your cat roam outdoors or do you prefer to enjoy his or her company inside ONLY?

As a first post, I thought I would share a few pictures of my favorite feline. Her name is Prynce; yes, when we named her we thought she was a male. Why change her name? With a simple effeminate ‘ie’ at the end, her name was born. Pryncie. She responds well to it; I was told cats respond better to names with ‘ey’ or ‘ie’ at the end, anyway. I don’t have much to say this first day. A lot to bring up and so little time to do it, so I will save that for another day. In the meantime, I thought I would share a few pictures of my little cat, and show just why I am a cat lover.

We have baby pictures of our human kids, why not our fur children?

As you can see, she doesn’t like to let me work! If it’s not this it’s the laptop or keyboard!

 Feel free to share your own pictures. If you don’t have a cat, post a picture of your dog, parrot, pet squirrel or whatever other little furry creatures you have in your home (hopefully NOT your husband!) If you can’t figure out how to post pictures, just go to photobucket and send a link!

I look forward to meeting your four-legged family members!