There are many things that cat parents have to put up with – it’s like being part of a crazy club. If you join any dedicated cat social media group, you will see the experiences that everyone shares and understands. You can tell the group the things your cat gets up to and soon everyone else on the site will concur that their cat does those things too.
I’ve included everything I can think of that all cat owners must have experienced at some time in their lives. If you can think of any others, please feel free to share them in the comments section below.
1. Our Phones Are Full of Cat Pics
The great thing about modern mobile phones is their excellent built-in camera. The fact that we always seem to have these devices to hand means we can make the most of absolutely every photo opportunity that we spot. No position is left unrecorded!
The next person we see will have the pleasure of viewing all of these photos and will feel obliged to utter, “Ahhh,” and, “cute,” at the relevant moments whilst politely trying to edge away. We never notice when they’ve had enough as we have no concept of how anyone could not enjoy seeing hundreds of adorable cat pics.
2. Our Privacy is a Thing of The Past
Close your bathroom door and your cat will instantly appear on the other side of it insisting on entry. Whatever you are doing in there, it needs to see. It’s best not to close the door at all because you will feel so guilty as the meows to be let in become more and more urgent whilst you are in no position to open the door!
3. We Believe Our Cats Understand Us
We hold full-blown conversations with our cats and are convinced they respond. In fact, if they meow back we continue the conversation as if we understand what they just said. With vocal cats such as Maine Coons (of which I have two) this type of conversation can be quite lengthy.
4. We Know Boxes Are Their Favourite Thing
When you bring home anything in a box, a cat will impatiently hover and as soon as the contents are removed the cat will be in the box. This can be particularly perturbing when the item you’ve just removed from the box is a new cat bed which doesn’t even get a first look, let alone a second. The fact the cat is twice the size of the box will be of no consequence. Cats can expertly compact themselves into the tiniest of cardboard containers. In fact the smaller the box the better.
5. We Learn How to Type With a Cat on the Keyboard
Cat owners know this is actually possible! We get used to it. Many typos in my work were actually introduced by a cat, not me. Sometimes we can’t see what we’re writing because a cat is blocking the screen, we just hope for the best. We’ve all made the mistake of leaving our laptops open and unattended only to return to find a cat sitting on the keyboard. We’ve all then worked out how to reset the desktop icons from giant-sized back to small and recover files we actually still want from the recycle bin. We know locking the cat in a different room will not work as it will cry to come back in.
6. We Are Always Covered in Cat Fur
Lint rollers are our friend. We keep them all over the house and in the car. We absentmindedly pick cat hairs from our clothes throughout the day whilst holding conversations with people who look on in interest.
People sometimes ask us if we own cats as they look at the hair we no longer notice on our rears. As we serve food to guests we see looks of horror on their faces as they spot the amount of cat fur we are ‘wearing’ very near to what they are about to consume.
7. We Have All Shared Our Bedtime Glass of Water With a Cat
One night I was woken up by the sound of Charlie (my white Maine Coon) lapping water from the pint glass next to my bed. I made a mental note not to drink any more night. In the morning the realization overcame me – that was the first time I had caught him.
I tried not to think about how many times he had shared my water previously and how
8. We’ve All Been Brought Warm ‘Presents’ in the Small Hours
We have all been woken from a deep sleep by that familiar sound of a cat attempting to meow with a mouthful of
If we’re really lucky, the mouse is still alive and the cat drops it which leads to a cat and a human chasing a mouse around the bedroom, the latter having hastily decanted a pair of shoes from a box hoping to win the game and scoop the mouse to safety. Such fun.
9. We Are Fully Aware That a Cat On Its Back Does Not Require a Belly Tickle
We really must remember to pass this useful snippet of information on to all visitors to the house. I’ve lost count of the number of casualties I’ve had to patch up with antiseptic cream and plasters. We know exactly which areas of our cats can safely be petted and the danger zones to avoid at all costs.
10. We All Know How to Give a Cat a Pill
When the vet prescribes pills for our cats, “Yay!” we say. On the way
Much later, with 9 soggy pills discarded, opened food packets abandoned randomly around the kitchen, and the only remaining pill securely in a pill popper we administer it in our least favorite way, which we should have just gone with in the first place.
11. We’ve All Been Woken By The Sound of Vomiting
We’ve all experienced the sound of a pained yowl followed by the rhythmic sound which we know very quickly culminates in a cat heaving up grass and a bile-soaked, sausage-shaped hairball. In our house, this always seems to happen at about 6 am.
We’ve all
Of course, regular grooming can reduce the occurrence of hairballs, especially in long-haired cats. Here’s the slicker brush we’re using at the moment (click the link to read reviews on Amazon). It works a treat on our Maine Coons.
12. We Know all the Signs of Cat Affection
All true cat lovers know that when a cat slow blinks at us we should blink back as this is a sign of real love and trust. We are aware that another sign of affection is a yawn. And of course that tummy display we know to be our cats putting themselves in their most vulnerable position in front of us because they fully believe we will do them no harm.
13. We Are Used to Cats Dangling Their Tails in Our Food
We know that as soon as we decide to eat our dinner in front of the TV a cat will appear with a tail to dip in it. We manage to continue eating, whilst watching the show around the cat, holding our dinner above our heads and still get the gist of what’s going on.
14. We Know the Toys Our Cats Really Go Crazy For
Every Christmas and birthday we buy our
15. We know Our Cats Think Vacuum Cleaners Are Monsters
As we take the vacuum from its storage area we begin to feel guilty. We begin in the rooms furthest from the cat and gradually work towards where it is sleeping. Without fail it has to peel itself from the ceiling and then charges from the room scattering ornaments and TV remotes in its wake. We set things aside to be glued together later and then finish the cleaning.
We have greatly reduced this problem by switching to this much quieter cordless stick vacuum (click the link to read reviews on Amazon). I highly recommend it.
16. We Know Not to Leave Things Near Any Edges
Cat parents know that cats have a compulsion to knock things from tables and other surfaces. They try to make it look like they are just stretching and then, whoops, there goes your glasses case. We all learn very quickly to move things we value to safety.
17. We Learn that Cats Like to Sleep on Clutter
We know that if we leave a lot of stuff on one end of a table the cat will lay all over it in preference to the comfy cushions on the couch. We aren’t sure why and we say to them that they can’t be comfortable but they still do it anyway.
18. We Can Sit Still for Hours if a Cats Sits on Our Lap
We can sit in the same position going quite numb, desperate for a pee or a drink but we will not move an inch because this may upset the cat and it might not choose to sit on us again! This teaches us fabulous bladder control.
19. We Give Our Cats Numerous Nicknames
We spend hours, sometimes days, choosing the perfect names for our furry feline friends and then make up a bunch of nicknames to call them by instead. I tend to call my two anything that rhymes with their names. So it’s Harry, Parry, Warry or Charlie, Farley, Warley in our house.
20. We know Where All Their Secret Places Are
Our cats think they can give us the slip when they feel like it but they always pick the same spot to hide in. We all learn to prepare the cat carrier in silence when it’s time for a trip to the V.E.T. as the slightest noise form it sends a cat scurrying to its ‘safe’ zone – the one we know about and head straight to. Admittedly it is under the center of the largest bed in our house and we have to go under, commando-style, to make the extraction.
21. Us Cat Parents Know How to Get a Reluctant Cat into its Carrier
It’s funny how a cat can spread eagle its legs and get a firm grip with all for paws on the rim of the cat carrier when it’s time to visit the vet. All cat parents learn that special maneuver required to get the cat safely through the small hole and close the lid without allowing a tail or a paw to obstruct.
If you’re thinking of buying a cat carrier any time soon, here are three I have researched and highly recommend.
22. We Soon Realize Our Cats Think We Don’t Need To Sleep
We get used to cats waking us up at all hours. Sometimes they sit on us in the middle of the night, purring like engines. Sometimes they have a mad half hour and tear about the house. Occasionally, they might spot a stranger in the yard and yowl at it through the window. They are quite happy to disturb us throughout the night.
Finally …
There must be so much more to add to this list that I can’t recall at this moment. Watch this space for updates!
