Nauset Kennels

Jo’s take on cat ownership

I consider myself to be more of a dog person, but we’ve always had at least one, sometimes a half a dozen cats around the house. My son is very much a cat person, so for his 13th birthday I got him a kitten. She was just a tiny tabby cat with white paws and very long whiskers. He named her Fudge. She was impossible not to fall in love with.

Ben and Fudge

So with this new kitten he marched into parenthood. He took on all the responsibilities of being a pet owner: feeding and caring for her, and of course, changing the litter box. They grew quite close. She’d much rather curl up on his lap and snuggle with him versus anyone else in the house.

Now he is 15 and loves his little Fudge dearly. So the other day when I came home for lunch I had to think, “Who really owns who here?” I walked into the kitchen to find a small mouse lying on the floor. I called to my son and said, “Did you see the dead mouse out here?” (It is not unusual for the “less than pleasant” clean-up jobs to be left for mom). He said, “Yeah, Fudge caught it. I was letting her play with it.” I mentioned that it was kind of gross sitting out here and he very sincerely commented that she was having so much fun with it he didn’t want to take it away from her. He seemed quite proud actually. Now that she seemed to be done with her “toy” I asked him to please clean it up, which he did right away.

Later that night Fudge came up in the conversation and he began explaining her evening routine, where she sits on his lap by the computer and then at bedtime is carried to bed and promptly tucked in. It began to occur to me that she really has him wrapped around her little paw. Though she is an indoor cat he will often carry her around outside and let her nibble on grass. A meow or a nudge and he’s up to get her a snack. And she never goes without when it comes to toys, most of which he buys with his own money. I think she got more stuff for Christmas than anyone else!

Now we all love our animals very much. They bring us companionship and unconditional love. And cats most certainly have their own sophisticated way they show it. They are endearing and very clever. There seems to be a fine line that cats and their owners waver on as to who is in charge. It would seem in our house little Fudgy reigns supreme. So I have to ask you to think about your house – do you own your cat? Or does your cat own you?

Tags: boarding kennels, cat boarding, cats

This entry was posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 11:04 am and is filed under Musings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.