Memoirs of a first-time pet parent
It came to me during the wee hours of the morning last week. I had been rudely awakened by the unmistakable sound of something shattering into pieces – followed by suspicious scurrying.
I got upward, one-half-awake, and about tripped on a hirsuite shadow outside our sleeping accommodation door.
"Meow."
Two small eyes looked upwards at me. Our cat just knocked over a potted constitute at 3am.
As I was cleaning up the mess, a strong whiff of poop wafted in from the kitchen, as if the world was telling me: "Hey, you're awake! Might besides…"
At that moment, I thought to myself: How did I end upwardly shovelling true cat poop and sweeping pottery shards in the middle of the nighttime?
"Meow." Aww. So cute, you…
CHLOE THE Clumsy CALICO
It has been a calendar month since I officially joined the ranks of Singapore'due south regular army of pet parents. Her proper name is Chloe and I am her hooman.
Chloe is an adorable female calico that my true cat-loving wife and I adopted from a shelter. At eight months onetime, she's roughly the equivalent of a fifteen-twelvemonth-old teenager – and just as impuissant, restless and manipulative (she likes to nip you in the arm while you sleep because she wants a midnight snack). Oh, and did I mention adorable?
We first met her in February. My wife'southward friend, who volunteers at the non-profit organisation Keep Cats, had been urging her to adopt this 1 young, appreciating kitten in particular. Chloe's siblings and mother had all died and she was the lone survivor.
The shelter housed dozens more cats of all ages, shapes and sizes, rescued strays and abased ones alike – and, like Chloe, they all had their sob stories.
We stayed for a couple of hours and came out wondering why anyone would purchase cats, when there are then many of them in shelters like these who need a home. My wife had already made upwards her mind about Chloe but nosotros likewise decided to contribute a scrap to the organisation, which like many shelters survive on donations.
Now at this betoken, I have to point out that until I stepped foot inside the shelter, the thought of adopting a fur kid wasn't really on my list of things to practice.
For the longest time, pets just weren't really my matter. And my reply to the age-old "are you a canis familiaris or cat person" question had always been purely hypothetical. I'd usually go with cats, mainly because they're smaller, they don't olfactory property like dogs, and I don't suspension out into cold sweat in forepart of a Maine Coon. (That babyhood incident involving a neighbour's snarling, lunging Japanese spitz took years to recover from.)
Cat PERSON By ASSOCIATION
But that was information technology. At all-time, I had always just thought of myself as a true cat person by clan. I had girlfriends and friends who kept one or ii. And, of course, my married woman, who is only on social media for the sole purpose of following more than a hundred true cat-related Instagram accounts.
Her family unit has e'er kept cats, too. When I came into the picture show, they had two gingers: The inquisitive and friendly Franny and the more cautious Wade, who would follow her jie-jie everywhere.
Meanwhile, community cats were treated like side by side-door neighbours. A typical dinner chat at my in-laws' identify would oft get like this:
"Have you seen how big Al is now?" "Yes, I said hi to him this morning time. I also saw Cally but she seemed in a bustle."
Then y'all could say the idea of having a true cat slowly grew on me – and information technology probably helped that my wife played listen games for a whole year.
"It was 'inception'. Don't y'all remember all those subtle suggestions?" she said, with a mischievous glint in her eyes.
I actually don't consider hearing the question "where's my kitty cat?" on a near nightly basis equally "subtle", but it obviously worked.
There was also another reason why I somewhen gave in. Last year, Wade had to exist put downwardly due to a very bad urinary tract infection. The entire family unit was devastated merely my married woman, in item, was crushed. She had been particularly close to Wade and for a few months, yous couldn't get even get her to lookout man The Surreptitious Life of Pets.
And so when her questions started to become more frequent, I took information technology as a sign to finally give in.
GETTING PREPARED
For a first-time pet owner, every step has been an heart-opener. It turns out taking one abode isn't every bit unproblematic every bit but dropping by and picking one out – organisations do background checks on whether adopters and their homes are suitable for the cat. So there is all the necessary paperwork to get through and optional procedures similar spaying and microchipping.
On top of that, at that place's cat-proofing the habitation, and making information technology cat-friendly. That meant tidying up loose cables, closing off corners she may inadvertently squeeze into just not out of, making sure at that place aren't poisonous plants effectually and, nearly importantly, installing grills on windows.
Nosotros as well got a cat tree and scratching posts in the hopes that our cat would take its frustrations out on these instead of our newly bought sofa. Sadly, that hasn't worked out.
And while my wife already has experience living with cats, information technology was all, admittedly, brand new to me. Beingness the obsessive compulsive person that I am, I read upwards and Googled away on anything and everything to do with cats and having one.
I now know that Shakespeare hated them, y'all'd have a lower carbon footprint feeding a cat than a domestic dog, and that living with one makes you lot 30 per cent less likely to die of a center assault than non-cat owners. They're also non equally aloof as you lot might recall – at that place accept been incidents of cats saving people's lives over the years.
It'S THE LITTLE THINGS
The funny affair is, trying to learn more well-nigh Chloe has made me learn more about myself.
For case, I've always known I was kancheong. I didn't know I was going to be that kancheong of a pet parent.
During her second day with u.s.a., I woke up to find Chloe's left eye bloated. "I think information technology's serious. Nosotros should get to the vet. Like right now!" I told my wife. It was vi.30am on a Dominicus.
She looked at me like I was an idiot and promptly went back to sleep. After more Googling, I read y'all should wait and find for a day before properly panicking. By the adjacent morning, Chloe was okay. I could save my panic attack for another solar day.
There are also the fiddling changes 1 makes to the daily routine. Information technology's making an attempt to set up aside time for play – particularly for cats her age – instead of immediately vegging out on the couch afterward a hard day'due south work. It's waking upward at 4am pretty much every night because of a furry blur jumping on our bed. It's dealing with the litter box (every bit the more senior cat person in the house, my wife gets to exist the popular one who takes care of feeding fourth dimension).
But it's also the little things that make information technology worth it. Who cares most cat videos when yous've got a clumsy cat slipping and stumbling while chasing a ball right in front of y'all?
We're likewise lucky to have a rather affectionate cat. Every time she snuggles with usa in the early on morning, Chloe makes information technology a point to squeeze between me and my married woman. Information technology's an equal-opportunity manja session.
I might not have had a proper night's sleep in a month – and I'm sure there will exist more broken things to sweep up in the years to come – merely information technology's been a small price to pay for our very ain furry purring car.
At present excuse me while I go clean the litter box. Our kitchen's starting to stink again.
***
Thinking of adopting a cat?
Cat Welfare Order (https://www.catwelfare.org)
SPCA Singapore (http://world wide web.spca.org.sg/)
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/lifestyle/cat-adoption-first-time-pet-owner-singapore-215806
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