Seph's Rules for our Household

I've posted before about how our senior cat, Seph tends to babysit all of us and make sure that we are all accounted for. Aside from that, these are the rules that we've learned to follow if we don't want a cranky cat for the rest of the day.

Schedule:  He picks what time we get up in the morning, no matter what ridiculous hour it may be.  Don't get up too early or he has to be woken up, and that is not acceptable.  At that time, he must receive food in his bowl even if he doesn't plan to eat it yet.  By the same token, he does not like it if we go to bed early or later than our usual time, and when he decides to go to bed, we need to pick him up to put him on it, even though he's capable of jumping there himself.

Food:  If any other pet has eaten from his bowl, it must be cleaned before he is willing to eat out of it again. He will not try new foods if he doesn't immediately like the smell.  He must be fed directly prior to one of us leaving or he will not let us out the door.  Additionally, for no apparent reason whatsoever, food can't touch the side of his bowl or he will not eat it.

Attention:  Laps must be available to him at all times; should he choose to sit on one.  Once he is on someone's lap, they may not sneeze, move him in any way, nor stop petting him exactly where he wants to be pet at that moment. If another pet is getting attention and he decides to walk over and lay on his back, it is time for him to get attention instead.

Daily Habits:  Loud noises out of the ordinary are unacceptable, whether coming from inside or outside of the house.  All doors in the house must be left open at all times just in case he has the desire to enter that room.  Other pets are to step around him, regardless of whether he may be directly in the middle of the room or near his path..  If a dog thinks that he can enter the space that he is currently occupying, that dog will get smacked.

If we follow these rules and don't otherwise annoy, ignore or move him, we don't have to deal with any of the following reactions for the day:

Angry Duck Stance

Extremely Angry Hippo Stance

Very Angry w/ Ears Back

Want to learn more about Seph?  Click here to visit his page!

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!

    Find Zoey on

Pet Separation Anxiety

I had never stayed away from my dog for more than a few days until I stayed with my grandparents for the entire week.  I was so anxious to see Kita and play with him.  When I finally got back yesterday, he was fairly indifferent towards me.  He was tired from playing at Doggie Daycare all day while Chris picked me up, so that might have had something to do with it, but I was slightly disappointed.  After he woke up a bit, he is acting the exact same way he always does with me.  

I'm thankful that Kita is equally attached to Chris and I, because he is content spending time with either one of us, because our cats are definitely not like that.  They both express anger if we leave them for a few days, but when only one of us is gone it depends on which one of us has left.  When Chris leaves for a night or more, Seph sleeps facing our front door waiting for him to come home.  He throws in a long whine here and there to let me know he is not happy.  As usual, Zoey showed his displeasure with my absence by peeing on our bed and in our laundry baskets.  He never does that unless I leave him for more than one night.  Seph greeted me when he got home, but otherwise he didn't seem to mind me being gone.

I've always thought that Zoey's behavior was his way of showing his anger over me leaving and to tell me not to do it again, but then today I read this Catster article that claims that they are "mingling their scent with the scent of their beloveds."  I don't know about that, but at least one pet is very happy to have me home!

If you haven't done so already, check out Zoey's Catster profile and add him as a friend to your own cats if you also use the site.

Want to learn more about Seph?  Click here to visit his page!

Cat-in-a-Box

What is it about cats & cardboard boxes? Our cat Seph immediately marks any box that we bring into the house by rubbing the side of his mouth on it, and as a result, we have numerous boxes with no purpose for them other than to avoid him getting upset that we moved them.  We have found that despite the cat tree, window perch, and cat beds we have gotten him, he is much more interested in cardboard boxes. The box in the picture to the left and bottom right is where he goes when he is mad that Chris has left the house and forgot to say goodbye.

The box that he is laying in on the picture above was placed on a living room chair one day to get it out of the way.  We saw that he liked it, so we put a towel in it for him.  Since then, we cannot move the box without him sitting on the chair and staring at us until it is moved back.  In fact, if we even take the towel out to wash it, he walks around meowing at us until we put the blanket back.  Then of course, he is mad that the towel lost its scent.  We also can't place him in the box; it has to be his decision to go in there or he has no interest at all.  We do, however, find it pretty funny when Kita tries to peak in the box and Seph jumps out and hits him on the head (he doesn't use his claws, so Kita doesn't get hurt).  Are your cats this ridiculous or did we just get lucky?

Want to learn more about Seph?  Click here to visit his page!