What two weeks with my parents’ cat taught me

A cat is more than just a pet — it is a playmate, a companion and a big source of love and inner peace.

Jerry — Personal archive

The one thing that I always regretted about my childhood was not having a pet. I remember how I often asked my parents for one, but for multiple reasons, they never got me one.

Don’t get me wrong, my childhood was one of the happiest a person could hope for. But the only thing that really missed from it was a little furry animal to love and play with.

Five years after I left home for uni my parents did, eventually, get a cat — a little adorable black and white male cat that I named Jerry.

Needless to say, he changed my parents’ lives for the better and now rules the household with an iron fist (You should see what he does to our Christmas tree).

He’s almost three years old, yet this winter holiday was the first time I spent a full two weeks with him at home, offering him my (mostly) undivided attention.

Two weeks in which we’ve bonded like never before and I’ve felt such a connection to a pet like I never thought I could.

One of the more eccentric articles I’ve attempted, here are some lessons I’ve learned from two weeks in a cat’s company.

1. Play with them enough and they become your best friends. A similar approach to the same goal is giving them food. But that one’s less fun.
2. Contrary to opinion, cats are extremely intelligent creatures. If you think dogs are intelligent you should see cats swallowing their medicine. And yes, I do mean obediently like kids do.
3. Cats are also incredibly loving animals. They just have a very different way of showing it. Mostly they allow you to get close to them and shower them with affection. But they also have their moments when they brush against your leg or twist and turn on their backs when you come back home.
4. Wardrobes, drawers and fridges are like magnets for a cat. The shock on my face when I saw Jerry jumping onto a drawer in the fridge must have made for a great candid photo. Similar reactions to him trying to crawl behind the wardrobe and my mother pulling him back by the tail.
5. A cat’s purr is one of the nicest sounds out there. Getting woken up with a cat purring on your bed is as great as morning cuddles (my boyfriend won’t be very happy when he reads this).
6. Thou shall never interrupt a cat during grooming time. Trust me on this one, their desire to bite you increases exponentially when you pet them while they’re washing their immaculate fur.
7. When it comes to meal times, you can set your watch based on their inner body clock. Staring competitions tend to start 30min before mealtime. To correctly get your cat off your back, feed them appropriately.
8. Never underestimate their desire to escape the house. They can hear the front door opening from the other side of the house, and they’ll run fast enough to catch it open.
9. The theme song from ‘Benny Hill’ is the best background music for playtime. Trust me, I’ve tried this one and it works great — for both human and cat rhythm.
10. They are natural predators. If in doubt, shake a red bow in front of them. They love following their ‘prey’ anywhere, anytime.
11. Whatever you do, keep them away from fireworks on New Year’s Eve. This one should be easy since they run away Usain Bolt-style from any loud noise, especially fireworks.
12. Cats need a lot of love and stimulation. To be fair, I think cat owners need that too and will be eagerly waiting for the moment when their cats are in loving mode.
13. They find it odd if you lie down on the floor. You can try this one at home but beware — the last time I lay on the floor next to Jerry, I received a playful yet shocking paw on the eye from him, followed by him rolling on his back on the floor ready to play. Luckily my eye’s still there otherwise I would’ve had to invest in a pirate patch.
14. Cats lift your spirits faster than yoga does. 5 minutes playing with your cat equates to approx. 20min of yoga, I’d say. Now that is some pretty powerful stuff.
15. They sleep a LOT — I wish I could spend that much time just lazying around. Imagine how good our skin would look if we slept for so long, now that would be the ultimate anti-aging approach.
16. Yoga mats are to cats what ice cream is to kids. Yeah, I tried doing yoga once whilst at home this holiday. The cat quickly reclaimed the mat as his territory and started hiding underneath. He did leave me the carpet though.
17. Cats snore. Seriously. I wouldn’t have believed this one if I hadn’t witnessed the cutest snores from our cat ranging from soft to deep, human-level snoring. If you haven’t fallen ‘in love’ with your cat yet, wait until you hear them snoring.
18. They don’t openly show their affection towards you but they always want you there by their side. Cats do love being independent, but half the time they’ll be following you around the house. And they love having you there, especially when they sleep.
19. Any change in their environment or the people in the household can stress them out. And then they tend to fall sick — proven vet-heard fact. Though on the flip side, the Christmas tree always seems to have an opposite effect with them.
20. Cat owners become putty in their pets’ claws. If in doubt, spend enough time around a friend/relative who owns a cat. Each of them show distinct behaviours. My mother talks to their cat as if it’s a baby.
21. Water on their fur is forbidden territory. If you want to anger a cat, try to wash them. Or you’ll see them jumping out of the bathtub as if they had bouncy wires below their paws.
22. They (can) drink water from the kitchen tap. This weird one may be a very isolated case by which my dad taught our cat to drink water from the tap. It’s just as comical as it sounds, given that he won’t drink water from anywhere else but the kitchen sink.
23. Sleep time is the best opportunity for unlimited petting… There’s no funny spin on this one, although one can ascertain just how needy owners are during those times. I reckon I’ve hit record levels with this one.
24. … and to watch them twitch. It kind of looks like an animated movie when their paws and facial muscles start twitching. I reckon they probably dream of running, chasing that perfectly scrumptious mouse they’ve just spotted.
25. They’re the boss in any room, under any circumstance. You’ll find them at the top of the staircase, looking upon the whole room, or sprawled across the kitchen counter, examining each piece of food you take towards your mouth.
26. If you can’t find them anywhere, try looking under the bed. Reasons for hiding under the bed may vary from being scared of something to wanting some alone time somewhere nobody else can reach them.
27. Any stranger is an unwelcome distraction from their attention. Our great-aunt left our home a victim of ‘clawing’ attacks. Come to think of it, I’m fairly certain the cat was jealous that we weren’t giving him enough attention. Who would’ve known?
28. Hair braids are to cats what balls are to dogs. You might want to rethink dangling your hair around your cat when you braid it. You’re better off losing it naturally if you can avoid a clump of it coming off post-cat-attack.
29. Bribing them with treats is a good way to get them out of anywhere you don’t want them to be. My lack of experience dealing with cats showed very well in that I resorted to bribing Jerry to leave my bedroom when I wanted to sleep.
30. They have a different meow for everything they ‘communicate’. They have one for food, one for asking for attention, one for wanting to go outside and even one for announcing they’ve finished using the litterbox. I’d say their vocabulary far exceeds some humans’.
31. Cats (at least ours) love to sleep in bathroom sinks. This last point must be the cutest thing I’ve ever witnessed. I still wonder whether it’s the depth, size or curvature of the sink that Jerry loves. Whatever it is, he is absolutely enamoured with it.

Bonus Video

As a treat for getting to the end of the article, you can watch a funny video of one of the shenanigans our cute furry cat has done to the Christmas tree.