Cat-Temping

I’ll be house/cat sitting for awhile, and I’ve promised to write updates and take pictures so Awesome and Adora’Bella can keep tabs on their little ones while they are away.

Yesterday I settled in with a couple duffels, the same ones I’ve been reshuffling myself around with all year.  My handy dandy packing/repacking plan has made it super easy to go from one place to the next in a hurry.  Useful, but it also tends to contribute to the sense of rootlessness.

Yesterday, I came home and began to organize right away.  In the past, as I’ve wandered from place to place-house sat-temporarily- visited and or sublet, I usually don’t get around to making the space feel like I’m supposed to be there until I’ve been there for a week or two and by then I’m cranky and desperate for a sense of stability.  Team Awesome-Bella are some of the few friends I have where I feel absolutely comfortable resettling myself and rearranging things to work for me right away.

Zoot and Oyster are the cats in my care and although you all know, I’m not much of a cat person, I have to admit, they are way-cool cats.  I’ve known Oyster since he was a kitten and Zoot for about three years.  Still, when I come over to hang, they generally ignore me and we have a comfortable relationship of mutual appreciation from a distance.

However, yesterday when I came home and began to nestle, they seemed a little unsure.  Oyster studiously pretended that I wasn’t there, and Zoot sat looking at me with a shrewd expression as though he were trying to decide if this might be a really good – or really bad idea.

Neither cat seemed to want anything to do with me, until about midnight when I lay in bed feeling weird about being in a new place…again.  Feeling slightly disoriented that I didn’t recognize my surroundings and being fully aware of a severe exhaustion in my very core.

Then – I felt an unfamiliar weight on my feet.  I didn’t dare move for fear of upsetting whichever cat it was, and instead closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep, deep and tranquil.  

I guess I’m a temporary cat lady, guardian of two felines that may or may not get along with my standoffishness.  All morning I’ve been picking long black cat hairs out of my eyelashes, clothes and mouth.  During my shower one cat sat outside the bathroom yowling – evidently I need to leave the door open so they can get to the little box. 

Adventures in pet sitting.