CAT

Last year I blogged on Christmas. I kept it up all year with the exception of a few droughts in the middle. I thought I'd do Easter this year, but it is now Palm Sunday, so I'm a little late starting. The older I get the more distracted I get, BUT I HAVE GOOD EXCUSES!

Number one excuse: new cat!

If you read about our Christmas, you'll understand. (christmas-paulita.blogger.com/) Said cat is now one year old (this month). She no longer climbs the drapes, eats houseplants, tries to hang herself on miniblind cords, or attacks me. She still searches for paper clips, rubber bands (and then runs like crazy when I yell and chase her), dives regularly into wastebaskets, misses her potty box (as in aim), races down the hall trying to trip anyone in her path, drinks out of any leaky faucet she can find, loves to go into the bathtub and look around, darts into the closet before the door is closed, gets into things she knows she's not supposed to get into when she wants attention, and shadows me constantly.

I missed camelia season this spring. I usually pick three different kinds of camelias and float them in a bowl on the table. Sasha (said cat) flipped them out several times a day and drank the water. The camelias weren't happy in the house so I admired them, as well as any other flowers I might have wanted to pick, in the yard.

Actually Sasha is settling into the family. She sleeps more!!! Little babies sleep less as they grow up, but cats sleep more and that is good. She stays quiet all night long locked in the family room with everything picked up so she can't hurt herself, or us, or the house. When it gets light, she says she wants out of her prison and wants to be rubbed all over as she stretches out on the floor under our feet. In the evening she wants to play with us. We play follow the laser, Ants in the Pants, and you push the ball to me and I'll push it back.

So what's my new insight on cats? If you are getting a replacement pet for a beloved pet you had to have put to sleep, don't expect a carbon copy. Don't even expect the same catlike responses. Don't expect the same eating habits, or routines. Don't expect the same ways of showing affection. I guess this is like don't expect all your kids to be the same, or if you change spouses, don't expect the new one to be like the old one, or if you move to a new city, don't expect to do the same things you've always done.

Well, this is a start. You can measure your insight against mine if you want. Hopefully this is all the insight you'll get on cats. I am going to get a life.

Insightfully yours,
Paulita