Pets – Write on the World

Last year, my sons brought a kitten into my house. He’s about eight months old now, and let’s just say he is not a snuggle cat. Pick him up? He cries like you’re assaulting him. Attempt to pet his face? He’ll try to bite your nose. Classic kitten chaos.

This is Charles. AKA Homer. AKA Peter. AKA Poor Richard Pepper Puss n Boots. He’s filed himself under M for Menace.

But recently… something magical happened. I got out of bed to pee, and he followed me into the bathroom. I sat down, and he started rubbing against my legs. I thought, “Wow, he actually wants me to pet him.” So I did. Then, in a move that shocked my entire soul, he put his paws on my knee like he wanted to be picked up. Pants down, of course, because timing is everything. I picked him up anyway. And then—brace yourself—he curled up into my lap (well, the bottom of my pajama top, not my actual naked lap, thank goodness) and snuggled in. I thought, great, now I have to sleep on the toilet tonight, don’t I?

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A picture of my cat, Zelda — Meet Zelda: She likes to hang out in my office while I work.

A few weeks ago, I finally got my 6-year-old the baby kitty he’s wanted so badly for so, so long. She’s a sweet little calico named Zelda, and she has yet to have a single accident outside of her litter box. Seriously, not even one. She’s awesome! But the whole litter box thing is still kinda grossing me out.

This is the first time I’ve ever had an indoor cat, so I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I started with a small litter box and soon found my bathroom floor covered in cat litter because Zelda kept kicking it out of the box. So then we moved to a bigger litter box with somewhat of a cover on it. But she still somehow manages to kick the cat litter out all over the place. Plus the smaller litter box fit neatly right next to our toilet, but the big litter box fits neatly… well… NOWHERE. Continue reading “Can you really potty train a cat?” →