It has been approved by cat members of the household.
Month: December 2017
I bought a cat tree.
I got it quite cheaply compared to most of the cat trees you see, which was why I bought it. No doubt it’s not as high quality, but…
Anyway, I bought it online in a fit of kitten love. Then 24 hours later… it occurred to me to check how heavy the delivered box would be. 50lbs. Huh. OK. I can lift that I guess… Up two flights of steps. I guess.
Then it arrived. The box was very large. I was NOT going to be able to carry it. But I triumphed. I got out my two wheel cart, essential tool for all single people, tied the box to the cart and pulled that damn box up 2 flights of steps. And didn’t kill myself by falling head first down the stairs.
Now it’s a box in my living room. It’s still not a cat tree.
Apparently, cat trees don’t just happen when you open the box. ASSEMBLY IS REQUIRED.
Assembly has not shown up and the box been waiting since Tuesday.
Saturday – the traditional day to celebrate the Assembly is Required footnote. I think Assembly must show up today because the cats are currently entertaining themselves by stampeding through the apartment like buffalo.
Happy Cat Stampede is a sound that I personally enjoy, but it is my understanding that other people do not. And I am going to assume that the downstairs neighbor finds the cat stampede to be annoying.
Hopefully if we assemble this cat tree they will focus their play on the tree and do fewer stampedes at 6am.
I doubt it though. Maybe she’s deaf.
For the 1st time in 7 years I put up Holiday decorations.
I strung lights around my front window. I’m rather proud of that step into normal behavior. I haven’t involved myself in Xmas since my mom died. But I feel more human and interested in making a pretty place for myself. So I pulled out a box of lights I bought in an after Xmas sale, with the vague idea of making some kind of decorative element for the bedroom.
Now I need to watch the kitten and how he treats them. He and Bijou were on the balcony while I put them up. It’s a beautiful sunny warm winter day and kitten hadn’t been out on the balcony much. Bijou supervised. NO GROWLS!!
But I think it was serendipitous because then they weren’t involved in putting up the lights and didn’t see them bouncing about like a toy.
You know. I really am a WHOLE lot better than I was 5 years ago. It’s been a long VERY slow slog that feels like nothing gets better. But it really does. And it has. I doubt I will ever be Mrs. Mental Health. But I’m getting to be Mrs. Mental OK Sometimes.
Maybe I will buy tiny tree too.
Meet Rebel Tim
He is about 14 weeks give or take. I got him from a woman who runs an informal rescue out of her pet supply store. She can be counted on to have at least a few kittens and cats needing homes.
I introduced him to Bijou who is acting traditionally by hissing and growling as is prescribed by millennia of custom among cats.
Tim is not very impressed by her threats and has explored the entire apartment thoroughly, eaten a good dinner and now feels it is time for a cuddle.
BUT there will be NONE OF THAT. Boundaries have been laid and he is not allowed to get on the bed. Indeed, I have also gotten growled at for inviting him.
Tim and I are properly chastised. We might seek solace in the dining room. Where cranky pants calicos aren’t staking arbitrary claims to space.
I am hopeful that they will come to a completion of this cat meeting ritual sooner rather than later, if I just stay out of it. But it’s hard not to participate in having a new kitten!
But I got the kitten for Bijou, not for me. So. I will attempt… Probably unsuccessfully… not to lavish a ton of attention on the kitten.
It's a Thought 