So I’ve had my fair share of animals in my life, but my experience with cats extends to the family cat that lives with my parents, and friend’s cats. Unfortunately my Grandmother’s dementia recently took a turn for the worse and she’s no longer able to live at home despite our wishes and work to help keep her there. That means her cat was in need of a home, and I took him in.
He was indoor/outdoor but I’m transitioning him to indoor only which is smooth so far since he’s really only comfortable with the two back rooms of my apartment nowhere near the door or slider. He’s on the more active side, and I’ve taken to playing with him 2 or 3 times a day and leaving treats in random places for him to “hunt” which he seems to like. He’s got about 900 things to scratch, and I got a huge cat tree that I put up against the window facing the huge front yard of our complex and a treeline on its left, lots of people and animal watching for him there.
I guess I have two questions: what level of hand-holding do cats need? This guy is suddenly a little clingy which I assume is normal since he lost his companion and he’s been uprooted. Most everyone thinks I’m crazy for how much I’m doing - I leave YouTube videos of birds and squirrels on for him when I go to work, that’s the level I’m on lol. But I think I’m used to dogs who need a pretty high level of hand-holding throughout their day. I am constantly thinking about ways to entertain him but I didn’t think cats were supposed to be this exhausting which I’d guess is a sign I’m overthinking it.
But more importantly, is it cruel to lock him out of my bedroom at night? I tried letting him sleep with me, but he averages about 3 hours before he’s trying to squish my eyeballs walking over my face or picking my nose with his paws. I do NOT do well without sleep and have a patient-facing job that I need to be functioning at my best for, and I was exhausted. He has the run of the rest of my two bedroom apartment, so the guest room, living room, bathroom, and kitchen. I rotate different toys that are left out, he has access to water and his litterbox and the cat tree. I play with him and then give him his evening meal before closing my door for the night. Generally he seems unaffected - he’ll try scratching the door for a minute or two around 3 or 4am, but that’s about it. I don’t react and he seems to taper to weaker attempts each night. He was snoozing in the cat tree when I opened my door this morning. Thanks in advance to more cat savvy peeps.
My cats learned that if they wanted to be entertained while I’m at work - there’s the windows, and boxes and toys on the floor so go knock yourself out.
and bless you for taking him in.
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