Kit- E

Although I could bore you with the story about being stranded at sea this past Sunday, this post is going to be about our new cat.

Yes, that's right, my apartment (or actually my roommate, Lauren) recently procured a cat. Her name is Mika, but for short we will now be calling her Punky, because her legs are mismatched. (She is that multicolored variety that could be called Tabby or maybe Calico? We are not sure entirely, because we are not entirely cat people.)

Anyway, she needed a home, so since Lauren had been secretly craigslisting cats, she jumped at the opportunity to take this one in.

I think it is important for everyone to note that we are actually not really cat people. I myself have always hesitated to get a cat because I hear that they multiply much in the way of rabbits... first you have one, then you have many. In the case of rabbits you can blame the abundance on that they are in fact, rabbits, it goes without saying they will multiply. However, if you have multiple cats, and you are female, and single, then you will be called "crazy cat lady". Granted, I don't think at age 25 one could really be called a crazy cat lady, but then again, this is how it begins... get one cat at 25, by 50 you have an infininite number of cats. Since Mika is not my cat, I am fortunately not on my way to being a crazy cat lady, but I do have to watch it. In one year, if the cats have multiplied, I will probably need to move out to avoid catching the crazy cat lady disease.

Since I have never owned a cat, it is my personal goal to make this cat act like a dog. It is day 2 on the project, and this is proving to be much more difficult than expected. First of all, a cat is actually nothing like a dog. Dogs greet you at the door. Cats do not. So far when I have come in I have had to physically track down the cat and drag her out from her hiding space or seat on the window sill so she can properly say hello. This is a work in progress, though. Once I can figure out a way to lure her to me without physical force I think I can accomplish this. The problem is my gut instinct says food will do the trick, but this kitty is a little on the chubby side, so treats are out.

Dogs also like to play with humans. I have found so far, that cats are pretty happy entertaining themselves. Just leave out a ball of yarn and they will happily paw and roll that ball around by themselves for hours (well okay, minutes). Operation turn this cat into a dog: I tried engaging Mika with a ball. First, I rolled it around so she was interested in it. Then, I rolled it towards her, hoping she'd fetch. She looked at it and then proceeded to clean herself. Later, after I had lost interest in the damn thing, I catch her secretly playing with the ball. Without me! To quote Stephanie Tanner: How rude. Dogs are constantly try to get affection and interest from their owners, whereas cats are the opposite. The owners try to catch the interest of their cat.

Despite striking out these past two days, I have not given up. I am quite certain I will get this cat to not only love me, play with me, greet me at the door, but also I will have her sitting, staying, rolling over, and playing dead.