My cat, the child.

When I went into my apartment's rental office to sign the pet forms, my landlord said something to me that I initially thought was funny.  She said, "That cat will be like your baby, my cats are my babies."  Crazy cat lady undertones aside, I thought her statement was slightly absurd.  Yes, I am choosing to have a cat before choosing to have a child (sidebar: it's weird to think that this cat will likely meet my children), but how in the world is a baby ANYTHING like a cat?  Sure, they both poop, eat, and are approximately similar in size.  But otherwise, I thought she was being silly.

After 3 weeks with a cat, I am seeing her statement as more and more true every day.  This cat basically is my only son: I take care of him and clean up his mess.  I wouldn't say he's anything like an infant, but perhaps like a kindergartner.  Here are some traits that my cat exhibits that I assume would be pretty common in a little boy of about 6-years-old.

1.  He wakes me up at 6am most mornings (for food).  I think back to all the times I woke my parents up early in the morning on Saturdays because I wanted to watch cartoons.  I can just hear the "Mom, I want to get up now!" in his voice as he's poking me in the face with his paw.

2.  He doesn't pick up his toys.  Luckily, he has no Legos, but the little jingle balls aren't much more fun to step on.

3.  He's suspicious of strangers.  Although he might take candy from one, as long as that candy was a piece of chicken.

4.  He curls up in bed with me when a bad storm is making scary noises outside.  He even shoved his face under my arm and then slept there the rest of the night.  IT WAS SO CUTE.

5.  He pushes the boundaries.  He jumps up onto the kitchen table and looks at me until I tell him to get down.  He knows he's not allowed there and gets down as soon as I tell him, but it's like he's testing his limits with the discipline.

6.  He asks for food as soon as he is hungry.  And is rather insistent about it.  Unfortunately, I don't want my cat to weigh 300 pounds, so I usually wait until it is his designated mealtime.  I can almost hear the kindergarten version of myself saying, "Mommy, I want a poptart!"

7.  I have to decide what kind of "parent" I'm going to be.  I try most mornings, when he is purposefully waking me up, to completely ignore him.  If I give into his whim every time he asks for something (there's no reason he needs his breakfast at 6 instead of 7), he will come to expect it.  But sometimes I just want to feed him to get him off my bed so I can go back to sleep.  I see this being an interesting thing when my infant is crying at night.  This is assuming that he's old enough not to need to be fed every few hours through the night, of course.  Do I go soothe him every time he cries, possibly making him learn that by crying he can get exactly what he wants (but not needs).  Or do I let him fuss for awhile (which I imagine is hard to listen to) until he learns that night-time is for sleeping, not for Mommy coming into your room every 2 hours singing you a lullaby?  I really enjoyed Dan Kubacki's parenting style of disciplining his son.  When the toddler cried after being scolded, Dan said, "Yeah, cry it out."  And you know what?  That child cried for 30 seconds, and then was done and resumed playing happily.

8.  He hates the "clothes" I make him wear.  Mostly (only) his collar.  He has gotten it off of himself a few times already, which I am utterly impressed with.  Hopefully if I have a kindergartner, he won't go around peeling his clothes off in public.  But he is probably guaranteed to hate the clothes I buy for him.  Tough luck.

9.  He's moody.  I can be petting him and he will be purring and happy, when the next second he will decide he's had enough of that and it's time to pretend my hand is a scary monster trying to attack him.  Also, he gives me the cold shoulder if I do something to upset him (usually it involves me putting his collar back on after he's gotten it off again).  This might actually put him more in the "teenager" category than the "kindergartner" category.  But kindergartners throw tantrums sometimes.

10.  I worry about him when I'm not home.  I want to call and check if he's okay if I'm gone for a significant amount of time.  Which is ridiculous, because he's a cat.  That part will probably wear off when he's no longer a new addition to my household.

The obvious differences lie in the fact that I CAN leave him home alone all day while I'm at work.  Which, to me, makes him perfect for this point in my life.

Anyway, I am thoroughly enjoying having a kitty in my life.  As I type this, he is sleeping peacefully on the other side of the couch.  This morning before I got out of bed (but after I fed him), he snuggled on my chest for about half an hour.  It is good fun.