Five Housekeeping Lessons My Cat Taught Me

Last month, on Labor Day, I had to take my cat, Kitten, to the emergency vet.

I knew the prognosis was not good. She had stopped eating, would not drink water, and was hiding under the bed. My husband tried his hardest to keep my spirits up. Maybe she just has a mouth ulcer and it hurts to eat. She’ll feel better once they can give her fluids.

Unfortunately, what my gut was telling me was correct. She was very ill with both liver and kidney failures, and there was nothing that could be done.

Kitten was a… unique cat. According to the vet, orange tabby females are rare. Kitten loved to show off to everyone just how beautiful she was. Anytime someone came to the house, out came the cat, strutting her stuff. Pay attention to me! she commanded in her token high pitched mew.

Her favorite foods were tuna, hair ties, plastic bags, and carpets – three of which I denied her as often as I could.

Kitten had really long legs for a cat and was quite athletic. She was the only cat out of my three who could vault over the closed baby gate at the top of the stairs in order to scratch at my bedroom door and screech at me to wake me up at 5 AM.

She was a champion yodeler. If you held her in your arms and bounced her juuust right you could turn her mew into the best yodel ever.

Kitten loved only me. Everyone else was just there to witness her glory. She was very territorial about her special places to lay, and if you tried to move her, she’d let you know with a resounding screech just how wrong you were. (Also, if threatened, she could scream like a child being tortured. It was both frightening and awe inspiring.)

I still have two other cats who are each unique creatures who destroy my house in different ways, but Kitten will always take the cake for the most carpet destroyed, and why I had to institute several housekeeping changes in order to live with that neurotic princess.

Housekeeping Lessons My Cat Taught Me:

1. Always make the bed

Kitten would shed A LOT, and she also liked to kneed and lick blankets (she was a weird cat), so to protect my sheets and comforter I had to be sure to make the bed every morning and place an extra blanket over the top just for the cat. I discovered I liked both the look and feeling of having a made bed. Before that I couldn’t be bothered to make the bed, because what’s the point, I’m just going to get back in it. But starting the day with a made bed starts the day with a feeling of accomplishment.

2. Don’t leave random glasses of water sitting out

…because that cat would stick her dirty paw in it and lick the water off. Nothing worse than grabbing a glass of water and taking a swig and then seeing the floating fur in it… It got to the point where I would either have to dump out my water and put the glass in the dishwasher if I was about to leave the house, or even hide the glass in the refrigerator so she couldn’t get to it. If I was in a hurry leaving and forgot to put away my water, yeah that sucker got dumped out when I got home. Can’t trust a glass of water that’s been sitting out for ten minutes.

3. Dust often and vacuum often

Kitten’s favorite place to hang out and chill was my bed, so my bedroom was constantly full of extra dust and dander. I mean, the dust would just get out of control. This required constant upkeep to keep it in a livable condition.

4. Don’t leave plastic bags out, ever

This is common sense too, but before having kids I might not get all the stuff put away at once (hey, that still happens). Sometimes the plastic shopping bags wouldn’t get hidden away, or not hidden well enough, and then when I finally got to it, a giant hole would have been chewed through it. This is also why we leave our bathroom doors closed. We use plastic bags as trash can liners, and Kitten would eat the handles right off. Crunch crunch crunch mmmm good!

5. Sometimes put the cleaning aside and just enjoy those around you, even the pets

It’s easy for me to get caught up in what I’m doing and tell everyone around me who wants my attention to just wait until I’m done. I’ll give my daughter’s painting just a cursory glance while I try to get the dishes finished. I’ll half heartedly hug my husband back because I’m in the middle of making the kids’ breakfast. I’ll ignore the cats who want me to stop what I’m doing and pay attention to them.

But life is short, and even though sometimes we want to everyone to leave us alone for a minute so we can just finish up what we are doing gosh darn it, we need to sometimes just stop and pay attention. Maybe I can let the let the dish water from my gloves drip onto the floor so I can take a good look at the rainbow my daughter painted. Give my husband a real hug in the morning (although he knows that I’m not a morning person). Stop and give the cats some extra love, because they live here too.

Life gets busy and crazy with small children, and sometimes we have to force ourselves to stop and pet the cats.

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