Cats and Dogs

For as long as I can remember, I've always been a dog person. I don't know how it started, especially since I never had one growing up. Every year I would beg and beg my parents, but my dad always said that he was too allergic (I secretly think he just hates animals). On the other hand, I was deathly afraid of cats. All of my childhood experiences with them were traumatizing. I got scratched by one across the hand when I was 4, and my grandmother had this evil mean-tempered black cat that everyone hated except her. I finally started coming around to cats in the last five years after I met some extremely friendly kitties at other people's houses. Before that, I thought they were just a myth!

My fiancé Engineer W had a different experience growing up. He had a (prickly) tabby named Annie who lived to the ripe old age of 17 that he loved. He also comes from a long line of cat people. His grandparents always had 3-4 cats around the house when his mom was growing up, and all of their kids ended up being cat lovers too. Most of them (including his mom) still have one or two cats today, so clearly the trend is going strong.

Annie hunting her shadow

Anyway, we first started talking about adopting a pet a few months ago. Even though I love dogs, we quickly ruled out that idea when we considered how much time we would need to devote to walking it daily and the hassles some of our grad school friends have gone through in the course of housebreaking/training their puppies. After doing some more research, we thought, why not a cat? They're sociable yet independent, housebroken, and fine with being left alone for the day while we're at school. Sounded like the perfect match.

On Valentine's Day, we went to a local shelter to look at their kitties. It was supposed to be a simple meet and greet, so we weren't expecting to bring one home that day. Of course life throws you a curve ball when you least expect it. When we got there, we met over 30 cats, but two really stuck out in our minds. One was a male tabby that loved to snuggle up on laps but had a tendency to escape his enclosure. Because we live in an apartment complex, we ultimately decided that he wasn't a good match for us. The other was a particularly friendly tuxedo kitten that we later named Catniss. She was so small compared to the other cats in her room that we knew she had to be younger than a year (our initial age limit), but we just couldn't bear to leave her behind. So with our house largely unprepared, we adopted her and took her home. In retrospect, that was probably a bad idea. Instead of relaxing and getting to know her, we spent the rest of the weekend running around, getting cat supplies and scrambling to cat-proof the house.

I'm not going to lie; the first week with her was really rough. Not just for her, but also for the humans involved. In fact, the initial experience was so bad that we considered taking her back to the shelter. One issue was how she would mew piteously any time we left the room, even if it was only for a few minutes. Needless to say, it was hard to get any sleep all week. Another issue was how long her claws were. She has a habit of kneading with her claws out, so every single time she sat on me, I would get these long scratches across my legs. Plus they ended up getting infected (apparently cat-scratch disease is a thing, you guys), so now I have to take antibiotics to clear it up. She's gotten a lot better about kneading with her claws since, but she still cries a few times a night while we're trying to sleep.

Don't get me wrong though. She has a lot of great qualities too. For example, she's extremely sweet. She loves nothing better than sitting on a warm lap and being petted. And she's totally okay with having her paws touched. It was really easy to clip her nails within two days of getting her, and we did it again this weekend. She also had her first vet appointment recently, and that went better than expected. She only protested being in her carrier a little, and she was a complete angel at the vet, even when they had to take her temperature and express her anal glands. The vet complimented her on how calm she was. Overall, she's a great cat despite being naughty sometimes.

Catniss's favorite pastime

Even though we've only had her for a short period of time, we already know a lot about her. Her favorite things include playing with her mouse wand (highly recommend for anyone with a playful cat!), chewing on really thin wires (she already bit through the cord for a pair of ear buds), sleeping on a warm lap, being petted, and FOOOOD (dry, wet, pretty much anything except strawberries). Her dislikes include being sprayed with water when she jumps up on the kitchen counter and when we close our bedroom door to go to sleep.

Looking fierce after catching the "mouse"

Since we got her, she's done some pretty hilarious things that I wish I had filmed. For example, we have a trash can with a swing top lid that sits next to the kitchen counter. One day she wanted to jump on the counter, and she thought she could get there via the trash can. So she jumped up... and then promptly fell in, completely freaked out, and bounced around inside until the trash can toppled, finally releasing her. Luckily there were only a few dry things inside, so she wasn't hurt. Another funny thing was when I tried offering her a strawberry slice. First I googled around to make sure it wasn't toxic for cats, and then I placed it in front of her nose. She was interested and sniffed it a few times but thought it was a toy, so she started batting it around with her paw. To let her know it was food, I led her to her food bowl and put it inside. She finally understood and licked it. Then she looked up at me, pulled it out of her food bowl (bleh that's not food), and stalked off in disgust!

So I wanted to end with a toast to Catniss. You may be naughty at times, but you're sweet, snuggly, and hilarious. May we have many long years together!

Hanging out with me on the couch

Are you a cat person, dog person, both, or neither? Also, do you have any tips for training a cat to not wake you up at night? Please let me know in the comments section below. Thanks!