About these cats

 I can't throw away a box these days; when I get a nice box and empty it, the cats jump right in.  It's the only peace and quiet I get sometimes.  However, all the cat toys and boxes make it look as though we are hoarders, but I've never much cared what folks thought of me.

I'm always opening doors:  The cats sleep in our unheated back porch at night, and that's where the litter box is.  When they meow to tell me they need to "go", I open the door to our tiny laundry room, and then the door to their room, i.e., the back porch.  When I hear faint mewing, I open two doors so they can come back with us.  I also sometimes keep the bedroom and bathroom doors shut also, unless I'm in the room with them.  As for the bathroom, they have discovered that game where they unroll the toilet paper.

One-fourth of the time, one cat is missing.  Another one-fourth of the time they are both missing.  If they're not missing, they are crawling into the lower doors under and beside the sink, jumping through my pots and pans and going from one end to the other.  

Remember that poem about "fog comes in on little cat feet"?  Oh yes, they do know how to be quiet when they are sneaking up on one another.  But sometimes they make more noise than a carpenter, and that's how they sound... as if they are remodeling the next room.

I really don't mind cleaning the litter box.  Don't forget I used to sit almost under a cow with my head in her flank to milk, and sometimes they would poop right beside me... usually watery poop, so specks of it might hit my face.  (I hope I haven't made any city dwellers want to puke.)  So far Cliff has been surprised that he doesn't smell the litter box (not often, anyway).

We'll soon be in the poor-house, as my mother used to say.  These cats are the first ones I've had to be totally housecats.  Just managing the litter-box is pricey.  The first box I had ready when they arrived seemed fine, but they had litter all over the porch floor.  My friend Jessica has a cat, and told me it would help if there was a top on the litter-box.  She was right; I bought one, but there was still quite a bit of litter all over the floor in front of the litter box.  My friend Paula said I would probably  need a special mat that will catch the litter that gets on their feet.  I've had that for less than a week, and it almost solves the problem.  I buy everything from Chewy and they love me.  My friend Joanna, a longtime cat lady and proud of it, has given me tips, too.  

In case you are worried that my cats will freeze to death in winter, I still have the cooler Cliff turned into a winter bedroom for Blue, my inside/outside cat that was killed by a predator.  It's no worse for the wear, and when it's cold, both cats crawl in and cuddle on the soft straw that's covered by an old folded flannel bed sheet.  When we leave the house, the cats stay in the porch.  I don't know if I will ever trust them enough to do no damage, sneaky as they are; also, they don't know how to open doors to their room, although every once in awhile, Butch tries jumping up to the doorknob.  But they really don't seem to suffer when we're gone.  Usually when we arrive home they are both on the top of Blue's old cat tree looking out the window, a cat tree they like a lot better than the new one I bought for them.

Wish me luck as I change into an old cat lady.