Frivolous Friday – How Cats Can Change Your World

When you have multiple cats, you don’t always know which cat is doing or has done what? You might think you know, but not always until… Yes, until one of them leaves. When Lily left us almost three weeks ago, she took a lot of housecleaning chores with her. I knew it was Lily cluttering the house with her toys and my socks. Since she left us, I’ve also learned that she shed the most, drank the most water, and she’s the one who kicked all the sand out of the litter box. I suspected it was Lily, and I didn’t mind cleaning up the litter and the fur because, along with her slovenly habits, she brought a lot of joy into our home.

Things change when you bring a new cat or kitten in and they change when a cat leaves. Another thing I notice lately is that when I make the bed in the morning, the bedspread is all catawampus and falling to once side of the bed. That never happened when Lily was here, I guess it was because she slept with me and held the spread in place.

I eat alone and in peace now. There’s no more large-eye begging. I don’t have to watch for a sneaky paw snagging a piece of chicken or tuna from my plate or a fur-face diving into my water glass.

When Max, our formerly feral pretty-boy, left we pulled up all the rest of the carpet in the house, did a deep cleaning, and laid new carpeting. Max never did learn appropriate potty behavior. We took him in when he was about seven weeks old. Although I tried behavior-changing training, pheromones, Rescue Remedy, confinement, added affection and attention, a variety of types of litter and boxes and placement, he continued to pee outside the litter box. I also consulted with several veterinarians, AND I had a cat psychic visit him, but we never could change his behavior. We put up with this and kept loving him for 17 years. Boy did I miss him—but I sure didn’t miss his behavior. I still can’t believe I lived like that for 17 years. I deserve either a medal or psychiatric treatment.