My Cats are Annoyed that We’re Always Home Now.
They have no time to themselves
I thought that the one positive to sheltering in place meant that my cats would never be alone and that they’d be thrilled by it. I pictured happy cats satisfied (for once) with the amount of affection and attention they’d be receiving.
Well, I was wrong.
My cats are more annoyed than grateful.
There’s no secret life of pets going on over here because they’re under constant supervision. Whatever they usually do when we’re gone has come to a standstill and they’re feeling pressure to be on their best behavior —well, it’s an indifferent kind of pressure that they feel, but still, it’s an issue for them.
Cats don’t like witnesses when they’re being very bad.
They stare at me with that “Don’t you have somewhere you need to be?” look and then run away when I start to come near them.
It hurts my feelings.
No smooches, neck-scritches, or biscuit-making on my stomach. My cats seemed to have developed an allergy to the human contact they used to crave.
My cats are tired of being picked up and fussed over all the time. They want to sleep in peace and not be disturbed by someone either taking their picture, cooing about how cute they are, or being petted so often that they’re over-groomed.
Plus, the human stink is always on them forcing them to take even more baths!
I’m sure it’s torture!!
All I can say to my cats is to be careful about what you wish for. Remember those times when we were out all day and you were fed well past dinner time or how about the cat-sitters who didn’t know to give you the special treats you love so much?
It’s not always party-central when we’re not around!
I guess it’s not as fun to wreck the house if you’re being watched. Does it stifle your creativity to know that as soon as you unroll the toilet paper or barf on the chair, we’re going to clean it up?
And if you start chasing each other in a way that we think is rough — we’re going to shut it down immediately.
Cats aren’t the subtlest of animals so they’re still able to let us know how irritated they are while we’re all in quarantine.
While I don’t understand the language of meow, I can guess that if we translated what they were saying, we’d understand that they’re saying things like “We never have any fun” or “Can you calm down with all the excessive petting?”
Before the order to shelter in place, they couldn’t get enough human contact — now our cats are trying to social distance from us.
If I put my keys on a table in the hall, they’ll mysteriously end up next to the front door and they’re knocking things off my desk more than ever as if they’re trying to force me to go work somewhere else.
When I was face- timing with my friend who hates cats, Josie insisted on climbing on me and putting her butt between me and my phone as if to say, “Go to a coffee shop and meet in person or I’ll do my worst remotely.”
Cats are never satisfied — they’re always complaining (at least that’s what I think they’re doing) when we go away for a few days but now that we’re always here, they’re grumpy about being our emotional support animals.
Our cats are entitled, spoiled, and insensitive to anyone else’s needs but their own and we love them anyway.
