Kaida has now been home for two days. Most of what I said in the last post is still true. However, Kaida and I are having some growing pains as we adjust to life with one another. Currently, she has two nicknames. One is still "Shadow." The other is "Whiny". She meows constantly, and loudly, for no reason whatsoever. And her meows increase in intensity if they're ignored. It goes from soft, normal meowing to loud wailing/crying, to her using me or my mother as a climbing tree to try and get what she wants, whatever the hell that is. God knows the has every kind of toy imaginable, plenty of food and water, and two highly accessible litter boxes. She also is not lacking in the attention department.
The lack of sleep is becoming a major issue. Yesterday, we let her out of her "safe room" which due to lack of available free space is my bedroom. I would have much rather had her in a guest bedroom or bath as was suggested by various sources but we don't have any. She seemed to be comfortable enough, and we moved her scratcher down there along with about half of her toys so she wouldn't be bored. She still doesn't show a lot of interest in toys without us facilitating it, though. She darts after whatever we throw, but then just leaves it. Anyway, my plan was to have last night be her first night downstairs. It was easier to ignore her cries when they were coming from farther away; however, when I had to leave my bedroom in the middle of the night (after all, my litter box is in a different room) all bets were off. She saw me and once again was stuck to me like glue-at least she tried to be. I managed to get her out of my bedroom again, but she began scratching and thumping against the door. My secondary concern in all of this is that her antics will wake up my parents, and I knew that having her wail outside my door would certainly do so. So I let her back in.
Unfortunately, when I let her back in I forgot to do something else. See, Kaida is afraid of my air conditioner. My air conditioner is what I use to filter the air in my bedroom. When I assumed that she'd be spending the night downstairs I turned it on. I forgot to turn it off when I let her back in. This wouldn't have made that much of a difference except for the fact that the air conditioner is in a window directly over her litter box.
Had I not been trying to ignore her walking all over my head in an attempt to wake me up, I probably would have noticed some of the tell-tale signs of a cat about to "do it's business". But all I felt was some scratching, then a sudden burst of warmth. Needless to say, she was out of the bedroom again after that until the Nature's Miracle had done it's job.
The other problem (although it's kind of related to the lack of sleep) has been that up until this afternoon she would not let me be more than 5 feet away from her. It doesn't matter what she's doing. If I get up to walk out of the room, she follows. Actually, she doesn't follow. She darts ahead of me, then stops and turns back. I take another step, and she darts again. To get out of the house to go to work this morning, I had to first sequester her in my bedroom while I finished getting ready then throw a ball as hard as I could in the opposite direction to distract her while I snuck out the door. As flattered as I am that she loves me this much, the reason I got a cat was because I wanted a pet that would be more independent.
Today (after shoving my comforter, sheets, and blankets in the laundry) I left Kaida alone for the first time for more than 90 minutes. My mother left for work at 6 and didn't return until 3. I left at 7:30 and didn't return until 2:30. Prior to bringing her home, I thought I would never want to leave the house once she arrived. But this morning, after a full 24 hours of listening to constant meowing I couldn't wait to go to work!
My father asked me yesterday if I was having second thoughts after the night of lost sleep. I guess that is technically true; I am re-evaluating my decision to bring this animal home. I'm not at the point where I'm thinking "Get this thing out of here now" but I am having thoughts of "Remind me why I did this again?" The thing I've discovered about bringing home a pet is that no matter how much research you do, no matter how many pet-owner friends you ask or how many websites or books you read, nothing can prepare you for having that animal in your home and the resulting changes in your life. Maybe by having her downstairs at night I'll be able to get the space I need so that I can enjoy the time we spend together. Just taking the time out to write this blog post has helped somewhat, and by the time I left work today I was once again excited about coming home to see her.
I also realize that it's only been two days. I have never taken to change well, and this is requiring a change in every way, shape, and form. I'm taking her to the vet on Thursday, and plan to bring up the constant crying and the shadowing. According to reports, most of this behavior should stop as she settles in. I'm counting the days...
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