Those who know our little family have most likely met or at least heard of our kitties. If you haven't, here is a brief introduction:
Our old girl - 14-year-old Tasha Sweet but quite frankly "dumb" 9-year-old Kasey
2-year old brother and sister Max (left) and Mikki (right)
Ok, so pleasantries out of the way, it's fair to say that it can be a mad house here especially when the cats are hungry or on a daily energy-high.
When we first got pregnant and announced it I got a lot of sweet wishes and congratulations. Along with those warm thoughts I have been "punched" with "What are you going to do with your cats?" question. Now I must say that I was warned about it and tried to prepare for it but it still irritated me to no end. "What do you mean what I am going to do with them? Make cat-stew?"
It seems like some people assume that once children enter the picture there is no place for animals; animals are dangerous, animals cause allergies or new parents can't handle both. Whatever the reason, the question about our cats kept coming up and making me nearly draw blood from biting my tongue.
(Note to some: if you want to check how much of self-control a pregnant woman has - ask said pregnant woman, who is full of raging hormones, what she plans to do with her beloved animal(s) once the baby arrives. Level of self-control is ranged on a scale of how much her response hurts you :) )
Now neither D nor I were dismissing all possibilities of cats + baby scenarios and took quite a few steps in preparing for our cats' new roommate arrangement. Some things, though, we can't really do much for. Like, how were they going to react to the new arrival? I read a few horror stories and what scared me the most was the possibility of any of them being aggressive toward the baby. They all have their own personalities, so what were we in for?
Let's go straight to the happy ending (so far):
Now I want to share our expectations and steps we took in preparation states of our little Lily's arrival.
Expectation: Cats will be a problem in the crib/swing/bouncers/stroller/changing table.
Step(s) taken: We'll find a way to keep the cats out of the bedroom.. and even when they get in the room, we'll put foil on the edge of the crib walls. That'll be unpleasant enough and we'll have no cat issues in the crib. In fact, we'll put it everywhere. The stuff worked, right?
Reality: HAH. Only one cat gets in the crib, Max, but he does so when he damn well pleases.. sprawled out like a king on 'his' sheets, legs in the air, rolling back and forth. It may not be his all the time, and hasn't been the case when the baby is lying inside it.. but right then? That's his and forget you for thinking otherwise. They don't bother with the swing, the stroller, the bouncer. And now that the baby routinely is on the changing table, Mikki doesn't try to get up on that soft new bed. It must be tainted.
Expectation: Cats will be a problem in a room she's going to crawl around in.
Step(s) taken: We put up a 42"-tall gate at the bedroom door. We'll get them used to not jumping into bed with us at night.
Reality: We made it approximately 0 nights with the cats kept out of the room. Oh, the gate was useful.. at times. It was nigh comical seeing the cats behind the vertical bars, longing for what was on the other side. We could only be jailers for so long on 2 nights, then said 'forget it' and let them in. We're suckers. But we're good at it! And now... well, the gate came back down. It got used more for containment than prevention.. though temporary jailing was useful at times.
Expectation: Cat hair will get on all of the baby's clothes.
Step(s) taken: ... yeah right, like there's anything we could do to prevent this.
Reality: Extra lint-rollers acquired and we called this a minor victory. They still don't get brushed often enough, but minor victories still count. Right?
T&D
Our old girl - 14-year-old Tasha Sweet but quite frankly "dumb" 9-year-old Kasey
Ok, so pleasantries out of the way, it's fair to say that it can be a mad house here especially when the cats are hungry or on a daily energy-high.
When we first got pregnant and announced it I got a lot of sweet wishes and congratulations. Along with those warm thoughts I have been "punched" with "What are you going to do with your cats?" question. Now I must say that I was warned about it and tried to prepare for it but it still irritated me to no end. "What do you mean what I am going to do with them? Make cat-stew?"
It seems like some people assume that once children enter the picture there is no place for animals; animals are dangerous, animals cause allergies or new parents can't handle both. Whatever the reason, the question about our cats kept coming up and making me nearly draw blood from biting my tongue.
(Note to some: if you want to check how much of self-control a pregnant woman has - ask said pregnant woman, who is full of raging hormones, what she plans to do with her beloved animal(s) once the baby arrives. Level of self-control is ranged on a scale of how much her response hurts you :) )
Now neither D nor I were dismissing all possibilities of cats + baby scenarios and took quite a few steps in preparing for our cats' new roommate arrangement. Some things, though, we can't really do much for. Like, how were they going to react to the new arrival? I read a few horror stories and what scared me the most was the possibility of any of them being aggressive toward the baby. They all have their own personalities, so what were we in for?
Let's go straight to the happy ending (so far):
- Tasha, old girl that she is, prefers to be left alone.. just like every other visitor. So this one is staying longer... big deal. She opts to ignore the baby until Lily cries.. and then she runs for it (the door, that is, not the baby).
- Kasey remains oblivious as always. She's consistent.. we can really count on her for this.
- Max.. well, at first, I wasn't sure if he was more curious or more scared of the new addition. Now he either takes over her crib for himself when she's not in it, or takes a whiff of her and keeps on moving. He's curious, but mostly apathetic.
- Mikki is the most adventurous and nosy.. just like always. Luckily, her klutzy ways have been a moot point. She gets up close, smells.. and either cuddles up with Mommy or looks for something more interesting. Now that the space closest to Mommy is taken up by Lily, Mikki adjust and finds a new place to lie to immobilize Mommy even further.. and sometimes she takes on her own KittyRelocationProject.
We'll see how things change as soon as Lily starts grabbing at things. Cat tails, beware! Hopefully we won't find (too many) patches of cat hair clumped on the floor with fresh bald spots on the little darlings.
Now I want to share our expectations and steps we took in preparation states of our little Lily's arrival.
Expectation: Cats will be a problem in the crib/swing/bouncers/stroller/changing table.
Step(s) taken: We'll find a way to keep the cats out of the bedroom.. and even when they get in the room, we'll put foil on the edge of the crib walls. That'll be unpleasant enough and we'll have no cat issues in the crib. In fact, we'll put it everywhere. The stuff worked, right?
Reality: HAH. Only one cat gets in the crib, Max, but he does so when he damn well pleases.. sprawled out like a king on 'his' sheets, legs in the air, rolling back and forth. It may not be his all the time, and hasn't been the case when the baby is lying inside it.. but right then? That's his and forget you for thinking otherwise. They don't bother with the swing, the stroller, the bouncer. And now that the baby routinely is on the changing table, Mikki doesn't try to get up on that soft new bed. It must be tainted.
Expectation: Cats will be a problem in a room she's going to crawl around in.
Step(s) taken: We put up a 42"-tall gate at the bedroom door. We'll get them used to not jumping into bed with us at night.
Reality: We made it approximately 0 nights with the cats kept out of the room. Oh, the gate was useful.. at times. It was nigh comical seeing the cats behind the vertical bars, longing for what was on the other side. We could only be jailers for so long on 2 nights, then said 'forget it' and let them in. We're suckers. But we're good at it! And now... well, the gate came back down. It got used more for containment than prevention.. though temporary jailing was useful at times.
Expectation: Cat hair will get on all of the baby's clothes.
Step(s) taken: ... yeah right, like there's anything we could do to prevent this.
Reality: Extra lint-rollers acquired and we called this a minor victory. They still don't get brushed often enough, but minor victories still count. Right?
Expectation: Cat noises will keep her up or wake her up.
Step(s) taken: Keep the cats fed on the normal schedule and be ready to separate noisy little buggers as they vie for territory, food, or the right to say 'I got more of their attention than you did.. neener!'
Reality: For the most part, it's a moot point. Even if she gets startled by a noise (cat-related or otherwise), the response is very short lived and she settles down somewhere between .2 and 2 seconds. Mostly. Personally, we prefer the low end. Try to contain your shock.
What did we learn? You can never really prepare for everything.. kind of like being new parents, right? Especially when it has to do with living beings that have their own personalities and behaviors that aren't entirely predictable. All in all? We've been pretty lucky and we're good with that.
And we're keeping the gate ready. This time for the baby.. she'll be moving before we know it.
Step(s) taken: Keep the cats fed on the normal schedule and be ready to separate noisy little buggers as they vie for territory, food, or the right to say 'I got more of their attention than you did.. neener!'
Reality: For the most part, it's a moot point. Even if she gets startled by a noise (cat-related or otherwise), the response is very short lived and she settles down somewhere between .2 and 2 seconds. Mostly. Personally, we prefer the low end. Try to contain your shock.
What did we learn? You can never really prepare for everything.. kind of like being new parents, right? Especially when it has to do with living beings that have their own personalities and behaviors that aren't entirely predictable. All in all? We've been pretty lucky and we're good with that.
And we're keeping the gate ready. This time for the baby.. she'll be moving before we know it.
T&D
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