A dog in cat's clothing

A friend recently told me that the three biggest stresses in life are moving,
having a baby and divorce. I wished she’d told me that before I moved and
had a baby in the same month. The divorce thing hasn’t happened yet (a
miracle, given the circumstances) but our home is not exactly the place of
peace and harmony I envisioned. That’s probably because we’re also renovating. In fact, I feel like I’m living through one of those home improvement shows, minus the team of professionals that burst in and whip a house into shape within seven days. We’re now into our fourth month.

In a way, I think we’re filling our time. After losing two dogs this year, we knew we needed an emotional break before welcoming a new canine to the mix. The renos fill in the time that would normally be spent taking care of the dogs.

The cat, however, has her own agenda. Katy is no longer content to spend her time doing feline things. Perhaps fearing that we’ll get out practice, she’s become decidedly more dog-like.

She’s now the official treat begger, door greeter, watchcat, and baby sitter. She loves everything to do with the baby and can often be found sniffing his head or snuggled up on one of his blankets. She even curled up next to him under his covers one day.

And just when I thought I’d seen it all, Katy pulled her best move out of the drawer. Late one night, after everyone had turned in and I was in bed reading, I heard a series of loud meows from the kitchen. The meows got closer as Katy made her way up the stairs to my room. Bounding in, she raced over, dropped a package and looked up at me expectantly. I glanced down to see not one but an entire bag of pompoms. Katy loves to play fetch with these fuzzy little balls but since they often go missing under the fridge or stove, I always keep the bag tucked away on the kitchen counter. Obviously in the mood for some fun and not able to find a single pompom anywhere in the house, our little feline/canine knew exactly where to go. But since she couldn’t extract one herself, she decided to bring me the whole bag. I broke up laughing, got out of bed and played fetch with our little wondercat until she decided she’d had enough. Then she curled up on the end of the bed and went to sleep.

Next week, I think I’ll teach her how to bark.

May your new year also be full of wonderful surprises,

Dana