A post about Carly

Last Sunday night I took Carly to the cat room for her constitutional before bed. She complained heartily when I picked her up off the window seat and took her to the bedroom. I had barely laid down before she started jumping all over me, doing laps around my head, being generally disruptive. I took her back to the cat room, figuring perhaps she hadn’t done her business. She did a lap around the food bowl, glanced at the litterboxes, and then jumped back up onto the window seat. I picked her back up and put her back on my pillow. She laid down by my head for about a minute, but the second I moved, she was up again. She walked down to the end of the bed and stared out the window. I thought perhaps that would solve things until she got kicked by Adam when he rolled. She leapt back up by my head and starting parading up and down me again.

This was definitely not going to work all night, so I moved two litterboxes, food, and water into the office, opened the window in the pet room from the bottom, and stuck Carly in there for the night. I don’t know what she was doing all night, but when I went in there this morning, she was sitting by the window, watching birds play in the yard. Making all kinds of kitty noises. Now that she’s discovered nature, she wants to be in the window 24/7. I picked her up to take her to her spot in the kitchen. She complained. When I walked by on my way back to take a shower, she freaked out, jumped onto my shoulders. I took her back to the cat room and she beelined for the window. I left her there and Adam took her back out when he was done getting dressed. She still looked unhappy about being on top of the fridge when I left for work Monday morning. The same thing has happened every night since.

Last weekend marked a huge leap in progress for the kitty side of Carly. She explored extensively on Friday and Saturday while the other guys were confined to their rooms to eat. On Saturday afternoon she discovered everyone else naps in the office so she had the run of the house for a few hours. She sat by the window in the living room. Found the cat tree and the teepee (which she napped in after dinner until Ted stumbled upon her and a growling match ensued - see previous post pictures.) She even sat in front of the patio door for a little while on Sunday night.

None of these things have ever happened before.

She would occasionally crane her neck from the shelf by the fireplace to see out the door. Sometimes she’d stop by the windows in the kitchen. A couple weeks ago I started taking her with me into the office for a little bit, opening the window so she could see and hear all the stuff going on in the backyard. At first she wasn’t too interesting – she’d usually end up laying on the desk next to the scanner in about two minutes. But after a couple days she stayed by the window, watching, listening.

I don’t necessarily want to shut her in the pet room every night, but she doesn’t seem to mind and I get to sleep for a night without kitty interruptions. Plus, she’ll be put in that room for the entire time we’re gone next month so it’s good to know it doesn’t bother her too much. Now if only we could get her to explore and be a cat when the other guys are around…

And to stop glaring at me...