Daily Life With Kitten

Hello there,

Early in the morning, Prasetio texting me and said,

“You should write more! How about writing about Cat or self motivation? You must have bunch of tricks.”

Err, true. But writing for me is about mood. If I don’t get the mood, creating readable Hub will be troublesome. But Pras is right and I also need the traffic. Motivation is about perception only so I used his text as my reason to motivated myself.

Let’s write!

I chose to write about my daily life with cat because it is the easiest one I can think of right at this moment. :D

In real life I didn’t meet Cat lovers a lot. Most of my friends don’t know how it feels like living with Cat. Many of my friends think that Cats can only able to give you problems with their droppings, naughty behavior and their need for food. And they also think; eat, sleep, defecate and do mischief is only things a Cat can do. I think it's time for them to see Cat from Cat lover's point of view. That's why I decided to write about "a day with the Cat" to provide opportunity for others to see the daily activities in Cat lover’s life.

Kiss is Cat's way to wake their human. It is not actually kiss but more like sniffing our face. That or bite: your choice! :D

They also will kneads their paws to our body like doing massaging and meowing with small voice until they decided their human doesn’t want to listen and use their last technique: bite! But maybe this is only my Cats.

Pintails said his Cat usually jumped on his belly to wake him up. One of my friend said her Cat did this also. So maybe this is only my Cats indeed.

My day usually start really early. I woke up at 4 by a kiss. I mean it, KISS! My Cat, Chiko didn’t sleeping with me. She have her own bed made from imitated fur somewhere in the house but at dawn she usually climbed on my bed, climbed on my chest (she is not yet 4 months old and quite small for her age, so she need to climb on me to be able to reach my face) and kissed me. She kissed and kissed and kissed until I wake up or else, if I decided to deny the kisses and keep closed my eyes; I shall ready to get some bite!

Chiko is friendly and sweet cat. It is rare for her to bite even just for play. But when she bites, she bites with intention and caused wound. So, no denying for me if I want to have peaceful morning! I had to I woke up from the bed and pour dry food into her bowl on my way to the bath room for refreshing myself.

Cat is like a living alarm. Their clock never missed minutes. If living with Cat, you won’t need alarm anymore.

Chiko had her breakfast while I prayed. After washed her face, me and Chiko snuggled back into my bed. The gate outside the dorm not yet being open (since back as student, I live in dorm again. Yaiy!!!), so while waiting for jogging time, I let Chiko have her snuggle time. She purred and purred, asked to be pet. I used the moment to do daily check on her. Look through under her thick fur for something not right. Brushed her through each layer of her fur. Cleaned her ears. Gave her the vitamin she need. And when I was done, she lied there, sleeping on her pillow with belly exposed to the world. How cozy! :D After several snaps on her pose, I left her to jog if you can call very little fast swings of legs and many many walks as jog. Hey, unless I tried to! :P

Bask under the sun in the morning before 9 o'clock is very important for Cats, especially those who live in the humid place like tropic Island. Sunlight helps keep them from skin fungus.

I was back home when the Sun already up. Chiko still sleeping but she already moved to her hiding spot, at stool bellow my working table. I used the time to cleaned up the house and do other house chores. When the sun hit the porch, I brought Chiko’s cage outside and picked up still sleeping Chiko and put her inside so she can bathe on the sunshine. Chiko hate being caged. She meowed really sad but need to be under morning sunshine unless 30 minutes every day. I used the time to have breakfast.

I have 3 Cats which living with me in different period of time. My other Cats have no time schedule for eating. I usually let dry food always available inside their bowls. But with Chiko, everything is different. She is picky about food. Doesn't eat much and sometimes need to be feed.

Vet said while having her in womb, Chiko’s mother didn’t get the nutrition she need for maintaining the healthy litters. Chiko born small. At 2,5 months old, she only weight 650 grams. And in 3,5 months she only weight 950 grams.

She is not thin, but she is small and can’t eat much at a time. So I give her food every 3 hours to make sure she eat it and will have all nutrition also fuel she needs to grow.

After Sun bathe time, it is time for breakfast number 2. I gave her 1 spoon of wet food mixed with 1 capsule of fish oil. When I first got her, Chiko had skin problem and now even after the problem almost heal, several parts of her skin still bald. It will need 3 months to grow back and fish oil will help to make her fur grow to its fullest and fastest.

She is back to sleep right after that. Sleeping is essential for kitten. They can sleep 16 hours a day and usually sleep during the day. Chiko is no different. She will only wake for eat, drink, pee and poop, also play and pet, and then back to sleep. With her sleeping sound, I started to do my routine.

Cats usually very smart in entertaining themselves. Give them soft and small ball or harmless string and they will play around happily. Plastic bag also appeal to them because the noisy sound it make. Cats also love moving object. Kenzo and Torty can sit in front of aquarium for hours trying to catch the fishes. They also love to catch the bugs or small lizard. So far, I trying keep Chiko from doing it, but I’m sure if she has a chance, she will love doing those also.

All day later, Chiko woke up, ate, drank, and back to sleep. Sometimes she was back to her favorite stool, but most of the time, when I was around; she climbed on my lap and sleep there. It is 4 o’clock when she finally fresh and ready to play. Her favorite toys are the tunnel and the catnip ball. I used the time to rest and played with her. This is the time I like the most in daily, the time when she is fresh and full of spirit. She will running around here and there and gave me many laughable pose. Help me to forget all my homework and job for while.

After 2 hours nonstop running and jumping and attacking everything she considering as toys, including my hands and legs, Chiko ready to rest. It is a time to brush her fur again. Usually long hair cat need 3 times a day brush, but because of my limited time schedule, I had to reduce it into 2 times a day. Right after I was done, Chiko already sleep on her back again.

Cat is nocturnal animal. It is natural for kitten to wake at night and sleep during the day. Later , little by little Cat will learn how to reverse this condition so they can sleep and wake in our casual time.

Later she woke up for eat and playing again while I continue working and studying. And at 10 PM, it was my time to sleep. I climbed to my bed and she followed me. I go to sleep with her snuggled at my side. And when I finally sleep, she started walking around the house to have an adventure of her own until she is sleepy again or until time is come to wake me up.

Sometimes in the middle of the night, when I sleep restless and moving around under blanket, she attacked me playfully, maybe thinking my hands and legs as a mouse hidden under the blanket. Woke me up from bad dream. ^_^

This is how it's feel like living daily with Kitten. With adult Cat, they will not this demanding but the laughing time will be less too. My adult Cat, Torty, considering herself too good to be spoiled by me and prefered to wander around the house by her own without involved me at anything. She would only look for me when she was hungry or wanted something, or when she felt unwell. But with Kitten like Kenzo and Chiko, they considering us as their parents and attached to us like children to their mother or father. It might be feel troublesome for others, but for Cat lovers thought this as a bless. Still, I must remind you, every experience is different. It is big possibility this behaviour might belong to my Cats only.

Adopting Kitten need a lot of responsibility. Kitten is vulnerable and easy to be exposed to health problem. Kitten like Chiko and my late kitten, Kenzo are perfect proof of it. Both of them was born with health problem and both of them struggle to stay alive. I need to provided Chiko and Kenzo with good quality of food, food supplement, vitamin and meet the vet every month to monitoring their condition unless until they passed 6 months old and totally cure from every health problem they have as kitten.

My suggestion to you, if you don’t have enough money or enough patience to taking care Kitten, better stick with adult cat only.

By the way, reading Chiko’s daily life above, really reflecting on how lame my daily is. Working, studying and locked inside my home if not at school or inside my practice room. As student, I have to make a choice because:

1. Good grade and good sleep resulted life without social relationship

2. Good grade and good social relationship resulted lack of sleep, and

3. Good social relationship and good sleep resulted hell grade.

   
   

My choice? I wish I don’t have to make one but I guess I did choose number 1 without thinking about it. I will be bear this alienated life right now for better life tomorrow! So, my social life minimized around my family, my clients, my fellow students, my cellphone, my facebook friends and fellow Hubbers. I have no time to play! LOL. Unless Chiko always ready to give me so much love anytime I need it. ^_^

A Hubber once told me people tend to adopt pet to replaced human being in relationship. Maybe she is right. But for me, with or without relationship, Cat will be around my life until the day I die, insha Allah.

Have a nice day there everyone.

Freya