Zoey's Favorite Things

 As I've posted before, Zoey is a bit of a scaredy-cat and slightly overweight, so he isn't the most active kitty.  He's afraid of dogs, so he spends a lot of time in our bedroom away from the rest of the family.  Worse yet, we have to cage him at night and when we are gone so that he doesn't get into everything and pee everywhere.

Zoey eats everything: any type of cat food or treats, dog food, human food and anything that looks like it might be edible.  He once ate part of our fake Christmas tree.  You might think we don't feed him enough but we feed him multiple times daily and more than our other cat, Seph.  Worse yet, we get yelled at by our vet for him being overweight (he is 13 lbs on a good day), but if we limit his food he just finds other things to eat that are worse for him.


The only time he ventures out into the family room is while the dog is outside so that he can eat any dog food that may be left out.  He knows that he has a limited amount of time before I notice and remove the food bowl, so he walks low to the ground very slowly, fill his mouth with as much food as possible, and then runs into another room so that he can dump the food and eat it at his leisure.  His leisure, of course, is about 2 gulps without chewing done within a 30 second time span.  I'm not thrilled about this trait as dog food is not good for cats, is more expensive and it certainly doesn't help solve his weight problem.

 There are a few more things that make Zoey happy.  One is a laser pointer.  However, he can only play with this for a short period of time before he gets tired and simply watches the laser rather than chasing it.  He chases balls and other cat toys for about the same length of time.  He likes to hide and jump out at Seph in an attempt to catch him in a surprise.  Seph is very observant, however, so I've yet to see Zoey successfully surprise him.  Both Zoey and Seph enjoy sitting in front of a window watching birds, squirrels and bunnies, so we put a bird feeder near 2 of the windows to increase the animals' visits to our yard.  This is what we call "TV for cats" and it can keep them busy for hours.  Zoey has a habit of pushing Seph off of the perch to make more room for himself, and Seph typically takes this in stride and finds another window to look out.


Finally, Zoey loves to cuddle.  This is my favorite part of his sometimes frustrating personality.  The best part of Zoey's day is when I am in the bedroom reading my Kindle or watching television because He can lay on my stomach and put his nose to my face.  I assume this is his way of expressing affection, but I could do without a cold nose against my own nose or forehead.  He also purrs and puts his neck out so I can rub his chin.  Despite the fact that Kita is our pride and joy and that Seph is a lot more well-behaved and is always around, at these moments I can see the gratitude and true loyalty that he has to me and I know that he loves me more than he loves anyone or anything in the world.  Something in his big eyes at these times says it all. His frustrating qualities are somehow forgiven and I know that I'm very lucky to have him in our lives.

Many people would not put up with Zoey's five years of bad behavior, and many people told me to give him up over the early years.  That's the thing about pets: they can drive you crazy when they are younger, but most of them settle down eventually.  We give them toys, food and attention, and that is typically paid back at some point.  So frustrated pet-parents and people put off by the expense and the amount of work that they require, hang in there, because they add more to your life than they can ever take away and their gratitude and loyalty last forever.  Don't give up on them.  Right now, Zoey and my kindle are waiting for me to come and relax, and any further blogging can be postponed for another day!

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