Meet Emily

4M6C2192.CR2: 5D Mk.III, EF 70 – 200mm 1:4L IS @ 160mm, 1/60, f/4.5, 800 ISO

My mom’s wanted a cat for years. She brought it up with my dad once and he was not sympathetic. While I’m living here, he said, I want no animals in the house! He’s not living here any more of course, and she’s mentioned getting a cat a few times in the last month. Each time, I encouraged her to go ahead and do it. There’s no reason not to. She still hesitated.

Then, last Wednesday, she told me she wanted to go out the next day and do some errands. She wanted to update her bank book, and while out that way, we’d stop at the Humane Society and see if there were any cats that looked like they’d fit in here.

I had my doubts. My mother keeps an immaculate home. If the cat liked climbing the curtains or using the furniture as a scratching post, it wouldn’t be living here long. So we went and she did pick one out. After we started the adoption process we were surprised to learn that the adoption fee was half the usual amount. As I was trying to tactfully word my question, my mom asked the question without finesse: “What’s wrong with her?” We learned that she doesn’t get along with most other adult cats and she’s very low-energy. The former issue is no issue at all because she’ll be the only cat. The latter issue is an advantage because my mom wants a lap cat and as little drama as possible.

So far things are working out very well. I’ve never seen such a low energy cat! Nor have I seen one that enjoys attention quite so much. The only time I’ve seen her run is when she ascends the stairs. She’s pretty well-behaved as well. She has scratched the furniture but we quickly direct her to the scratching post, on which she resumes scratching. The only other real issue is her climbing. We’ve caught her walking on the kitchen counter and table, and she earns herself the immediate attention of the water-filled spray bottle. In a variation on that theme, I contributed to her delinquency this evening by not only leaving a pizza box on the kitchen counter, but I left a dinner plate on top of the pizza box. So the dish crashed to the floor and shattered as a result of her trying to get at the left-over pizza in the box!

So despite the occasional drama, things are going well so far. I’m very pleased that my mom has a new friend to keep her company! I’m glad that I also like the cat, because I’ve taken the initiative with cleaning the cat box! If I’m going to clean poop, I’d damned-well better like the source.