I Love My Cat

This is my Sheldon Cooper, and I love him dearly! We have cute little conversations through out the day, and despite what people say, I truly believe that he knows what I am saying, and I usually know what he is needing as well. We play hide and seek, and tag with each other too.

My cat is amazing and I love him for all that he is!

All photos found on this article are ©Jolene Belmain

My husband, our 3 children and I, went to the animal shelter to look for a cat. We had been there a few times before testing out the water with all of the cats that they had. We would take each one out for a few minutes at a time to see what their personality was like. We wanted our new family member to be perfect for our family, since we are looking to be a forever home for this animal.

A few of them were very playful, but got a bit rough when the play was going on, and we didn't want that for our children, and considering I was 8 months pregnant with our fourth child, we knew that this cat would have to have a very gentle disposition.

There were a few that were just too lazy and really had no interest that anyone was even in the room with them. Our last family member was afraid of her own shadow, and would only come out at night after the kids had gone to bed for the most part, until closer to the end when she had finally gotten used to the children, and that wasn't fair to them at all, having a pet they barely got to see and play with.

There was one in particular that stuck out for my husband and I, he was lovable, affectionate and super sweet. The kids were all in love with this super playful black cat named Karma, but upon further investigation, Karma was not up for adopted just yet, so that made our choice so much easier to convince the kids.

The whole time I was out of the room asking questions and filling out the paperwork, Noah (which was what his name was at the shelter), waited by the door for me to come back. It was love at first site.

Almost every time I look at Sheldon, and in almost every picture I take, this cat is smiling and happy. He has such a great, laid back personality we almost thought a bomb could go off and he would just look over as if to say "Whatever!".

We spent this past Christmas with my mother-in-law, who lives in a different town, and since Sheldon was so new to our home and we didn't want him to be alone, we decided to bring him along. My mother-in-law has a Shih tzu poodle cross, and we were wondering how they would get along living in the same house for a few days. There were no issues at all between the two, they played with each other a bit, or Sheldon would just walk around with Button (the dog) following right behind him. They were even caught eating beside each other.

This is a picture of Sheldon just hanging out under the Christmas tree.

Well in some ways Sheldon is very much a cat, even though the majority of the time I'm pretty sure he thinks he's human. Boxes are his "Achilles Heel", and whenever there is a box ready to be recycled, Sheldon likes to take it over for his own for as long as he can.

The box in this small picture ended up being shredded by the man himself. Every time he would get into it and get all frisky he would start chewing and tearing the corners until eventually there was nothing left of the box and sadly it had to be recycled.

Since our Sheldon is an indoor cat, we have some of the luxuries of the outdoors for him so he doesn't feel like he's missing out too badly. I made him his very own grass which I water and he trims, and to make it seem even more authentic, I place in the beautiful sunshine so he feels like he's sitting right in the back yard munchin out.

Then when he is done mowin down, he flops down in the sunshine for a little, but well deserved, siesta. I'm pretty sure they have a hidden solar panel on them somewhere, but I have never been able to find it.

Recently we have started taking him out into the back yard for little walks on his leash. I can tell he enjoys it very much, but Sheldon never lasts too long. You know, for a 19 lb cat that could probably hold his own, he is a big scaredy cat. Any little noise gets him running to the house door for the security the indoors have to offer him.

Did I happen to mention that Sheldon is one of those few cats that loves to play fetch?

It all started when he had found a little red, super bouncy ball in the basement (you know, like the ones we used to get in the 25c machines when we were kids?). It fits perfectly in his mouth to be able to grab and carried to wherever the next human is to throw it for him.

His favourite place to play fetch it at the top of the basement stairs. We throw it down (making sure that we bounce it off the walls or it just doesn't have the same affect for him), and he will go bounding down the stairs and bring it right back up to us and even place it in our hands if we hold them out for him. Did I mention that I love my cat?

Sheldon loves to come and visit me at my workspace and check out what I'm doing. He's such a big helper ;)

For most cats, it's very simple... but for others you need to work for it. Every cat has a sweet spot. This is one of Sheldon's favourite games... and whenever I play with him, I find myself giggling like a little girl.

We just recently have moved into a home of our own, mortgage and everything! Even though in our minds we always knew that we would never leave Sheldon behind and he would always be a part of our family, he was very uneasy for months as I prepared our home for moving.

On top of moving, we were also losing about 300 square feet of space total from our other home, so 3 months before the move I started to downsize all of the items that had collected over the years. I knew that was going to be a large task all in itself, so I made sure to start very early.

Sheldon was by my side every single night and day that I spent going through countless numbers of boxes deciding what to keep and what to go, and as he watched the items slowly disappearing from our home, I could see the panic in his eyes. I would pet him and tell him that everything is going to be alright and that I love him.

Eventually moving day would come, so to keep him safe, I had one room of the house completely emptied of everything except his items: food, cat box, cat tree, pet carrier etc. I knew that throughout the day he'd panic in the room but also knew that this way he wouldn't get out of the house and get lost, so he would be safe. I even put his cat tree by the window so he could look out if he wanted to see what was happening outside.

Later on that evening, after we had fed the crew for helping us move, I went back to collect Sheldon and all of his things. He was so relieved to see me, he went straight into his carrier and awaited the ride to our new home. It didn't take him long to sniff everything out and realize that all thing familiar were in this new domain, and he settled right in.

I don't know if it's the house itself, or the fact that he realizes that if we brought him to our new home he was forever ours, but I find that Sheldon seems so much happier. I didn't think that was possible as he is the happiest cat I think I have ever met, but apparently is it.