‘Me? Cause trouble? But I am just sitting here in this box being cute.’
As I shared in the last blog in this series (Adventures in Catsitting, Part 1), hosting a friend’s cat for three weeks was a bit surprising. What surprised me was that after a week, I realized I was not enjoying the experience.
I was immediately consumed with guilt over that realization! Me, not enjoying a cat! Unheard of. Never. I love all cats.
So, I had to think this over. And it hit me that it was not the cat, but in that it was some of his behaviors that were frustrating me. Number one, his love of the 4 a.m. wake-up call. (And perhaps the interrupted sleep was leading to a not-so-positive mood).
First I had to have a few moments of gratitude. It turns out that my luck with cats has been quite amazing. Up until now I had never lived with a cat who wanted me up at 4 a.m. everyday.
But really, was that all luck? I decided to do some research into this behavior, and it turns out that it is quite typical. So how had I been so lucky? That answer came to me as I researched. Some of it had been luck. Our last cat was a sleepy girl – she would sit by the bedroom door when it was time for bed in the evenings and many mornings she would stay curled up on the bed long after we had stirred. This behavior had developed over time. When we first had her, she was kept out of the bedroom due to my husband’s allergies. As he got used to her, she got used to our sleep patterns. So in her later years, she slept with us. She would get up in the night, I would hear her occasionally eating or using her box, but then she would just curl up in her spot at the foot of the bed without disturbing us.
But more than that, we had trained her without even realizing it. Again, these were the realizations that I had as I researched cat training. However, some of the information I found in my research was new. Next week I will share more about what I found.
Cats in Tow Rescue & Sanctuary 